ZHIRINOVSKY’S MEN IN TRANSDNIESTER.

At a news conference in Tiraspol, three Russian Duma deputies representing Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s party called for the establishment in that city of a Russian consular office to facilitate the adoption of Russian citizenship by residents of this part of Moldova. They also suggested that a referendum be held in Transdniester on the question of the region’s accession to the Russian Federation. In fact a Russian consular section has been intermittently operating in Tiraspol and conferring Russian citizenship on local residents petitioning for it, or serving with Russia’s 14th Army stationed there. Referenda were already staged twice in Transdniester following its unrecognized secession from Moldova: on both occasions, the region’s Russian communist authorities reported returns in favor of Transdniester being part of the USSR. (12)

Constitutional Crisis Taking Shape in Belarus.