ZYUGANOV COMPLAINS ABOUT UNFAIR PRESS TREATMENT.

Communist presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov complained bitterly yesterday that his presidential campaign is being subjected to an "information blockade" by the mass media. (ITAR-TASS, April 9) He said state-controlled television was most to blame, and that the Communist campaign was getting fairer treatment in the provincial press than in the national press. (Over recent years, rising newsprint prices and falling state subsidies have sharply reduced the circulation of many national newspapers and many Russian citizens now rely for their news on television and the local press.) On the whole, Zyuganov declared, "there are no democratic mass media" in Russia at present, though Communist party materials are available through party-controlled newspapers such as Pravda and Sovetskaya Rossiya. Zyuganov also warned that certain members of Yeltsin’s inner circle are planning to disrupt the presidential elections and that vote-rigging was a real danger. He said the Communists and their allies would be on their guard and that "a representative of the popular-patriotic forces will be present at every third electoral district to prevent falsification." (Interfax, April 9)

FRESH DETAILS ON SHADOW CABINET.