ZYUGANOV’S PROGRAM SAID TO GUARANTEE RIGHT TO PRIVATE OWNERSHIP.

The Russian Communist party’s second-in-command, Valentin Kuptsov has complained that reports of Gennady Zyuganov’s policies in the Russian media include deliberate falsifications. Kuptsov addressed a press conference May 21 with Tatyana Koryagina, a Duma deputy who this week was revealed as the coordinator of Gennady Zyuganov’s economic program. Zyuganov has promised to reveal the full program over the weekend. Koryagina, who in 1989 was a Gosplan economist and a prominent member of the democratic movement, became disenchanted with market reform and joined the opposition. Koryagina insisted May 21 Zyuganov’s election will not result in the nationalization of commercial banks, monetary reform, a ban on the holding of dollars by citizens or the abolition of private property. Kuptsov stressed that Zyuganov’s electoral platform will represent the policies of the popular-patriotic bloc and will not, therefore, be identical with Communist party policy. (Interfax, NTV, May 21)

Chechnya: Heavy Russian Losses; Resistance Repeats Willingness to Negotiate.