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RFE/RL DAILY REPORT / This item is <abridged>

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The RFE/RL Daily Report is a digest of the latest developments
in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It is published
Monday through Friday (except German holidays) by the RFE/RL
Research Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, Inc.). Copyright 1992 RFE/RL, Inc.


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                     RFE/RL Daily Report

                                         No. 246, 23 December 1992

                   SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR

RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT CODIFIES POWER GAINS. The Russian parliament
has adopted a law on the government which gives the legislature
the right to veto the appointment of the ministers of defense,
security, interior and foreign affairs, Interfax reported on 22
December.  The head of the parliamentary Committee on Foreign
Affairs and Economic Relations, Evgenii Ambartsumov, indicated
that Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev may not be approved by the
parliament. The deputies wrote the new law without confirming that
the president remains the chief executive power.  (Alexander Rahr,
RFE/RL, Inc.)

CIS SUMMIT IN MINSK POSTPONED; YELTSIN SICK.  The CIS summit
scheduled for 25 December in Minsk has been postponed because the
presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan are ill, Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky announced on 22 December,
Reuters reported.  He also said that a meeting between Russian
President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk,
which had been planned to take place on the eve of the summit will
also be postponed.  The summit will most likely be rescheduled for
22 January 1993, the spokesman added. (Bohdan Nahaylo, RFE/RL,
Inc.)

CHANGES IN THE RUSSIAN CABINET.  The Russian Minister for Foreign
Economic Trade, Petr Aven, has resigned from the cabinet,
ITAR-TASS reported on 22 December.  The new prime minister, Viktor
Chernomyrdin, is quoted as saying that his consultations with
President Yeltsin on the new cabinet are complete and that there
will be "no drastic changes." Deputy Prime Ministers Anatolii
Chubais, Georgii Khizha, Aleksandr Shokhin, Boris Saltykov and the
respective ministers for economics and finance, Andrei Nechaev and
Vasill Barchuk, are expected to stay in the cabinet.  But several
democrats and centrists favor Boris Fedorov, Russia's present
representative at the World Bank, to become the new director of
economic policy.  (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)

UKRAINE ISSUES PACKAGE OF REFORM DECREES. The Ukrainian government
issued a set of significant decrees concerning economic reform on
22 December, Reuters reported. One decree apparently liberalizes
prices on many commodities left under state control after initial
measures in January freed prices of goods and services
representing 60-70% of consumers' expenditures.  Deputy Prime
Minister Vasyl Yevtukhov said that, beginning early next year,
state controls would be limited to goods produced in the
metallurgical, chemical and machine-building industries as well as
oil, cement, salt, sugar, vegetable oil and eggs. Monopolies would
also remain under some price regulation. Two other decrees were
issued the same day.  One transfers ownership of private plots to
those farming them, effective 1 March.  The other revises the
Ukrainian tax system. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)

IMPENDING CHANGE IN RUSSIAN MONETARY POLICY DENIED. Several state
officials on 22 December were quick to dismiss the previous
evening's Izvestiya report of an imminent introduction of a new
Russian ruble, recentralization of the banking system and massive
new ruble credit issue.  Deputy Central Bank chairman, Valerian
Kulikov, who was quoted at length in the Izvestiya article, said
that "Russia does not intend to introduce its own national
currency in the near future," according to ITAR-TASS. Aleksei
Ulyukaev, an advisor to Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, told a news
conference that he did not foresee any major changes in monetary
policy, Reuters reported. Aleksandr Pochinok, chairman of the
parliamentary committee on the budget, taxes and prices, told
parliament that no monetary reform was envisaged, according to
Interfax.  (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)

FIGHTING CONTINUES IN TAJIKISTAN.  Pro- and anti-Communist forces
were still fighting in southern Tajikistan on 22 December,
Interfax and Western correspondents reported.  Russian border
guards stationed in Pyandzh were reported to have given refuge at
their base to more than a thousand women and children, and
pro-Communist supporters of the Tajik government threatened to
attack the base if men from anti-government groups were given
refuge there too.  The same day Supreme Soviet Chairman Imomali
Rakhmonov appealed on Tajik TV to Gorno-Badakhshan, which
unilaterally declared itself an autonomous republic earlier in the
year, not to destroy the territorial integrity of Tajikistan. Many
of the anti-Communist fighters are either from Badakhshan or are
of Badakhshani descent. The presence of a pro-Communist government
in Dushanbe is likely to reinforce Badakhshani demands for
autonomy. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)

PAPER NAMES NEW RUSSIAN CHIEF OF STAFF. Rossiiskie vesti on 23
December said that it had learned from "well informed circles"
that Col.  General Mikhail P. Kolesnikov had been appointed chief
of the Russian general staff by Minister of Defense Pavel Grachev.
The previous chief of staff, General Viktor Dubynin, died of an
illness on 22 November.  Kolesnikov headed the Ground Forces staff
and was promoted to the General Staff in 1991, where he was
reputed to be the chief planner for the Ground Forces. The paper
indicated that Grachev might not publicly name Kolesnikov until
after his own confirmation in the new cabinet, but said that the
appointment had already formally taken place.  (Doug Clarke,
RFE/RL, Inc.)

NORTH KOREA SAYS SOVIET TREATY "INAPPROPRIATE." Radio Moscow on 21
December, quoting ITAR-TASS, said that the North Korean foreign
ministry had sent a letter to its Russian counterpart declaring
that the 1961 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual
Assistance signed by the Soviet Union and the Russian Republic was
inappropriate under present circumstances. The broadcast said that
a spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry had pointed out
that Russia and North Korea had established trade relations, which
included trade involving military equipment, and said that Russian
authorities had proposed that such relations be maintained in the
future. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)

KOZYREV SAYS START-II TREATY "ALMOST READY." Russian Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev told Interfax on 22 December that a new
strategic arms agreement between Russia and the United States was
"almost ready" and that a January meeting between Presidents
Yeltsin and Bush was "quite probable." Kozyrev said that he had
repeatedly spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence
Eagleburger that day, and that Russian and American experts would
"finish work" on the final text in Geneva on 23 December.  (Doug
Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)

UKRAINIAN RATIFICATION OF START AT LEAST A MONTH AWAY. According
to Interfax on 22 December, the press center of the Ukrainian
parliament announced that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
(START) would not be submitted to the Ukrainian parliament for
ratification before late January, 1993.  (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL,
Inc.)

RUBLE EDGES UP. The ruble-dollar exchange rate closed at 415 on
the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange on 22 December, various
Russian and Western news agencies reported.  The rate at the start
of trading was 416. Trade volume was higher than average at $71.03
million.  (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)

SOUTH OSSETIA SEEKS RUSSIAN SUPPORT FOR INDEPENDENCE.  South
Ossetian parliament chairman Torez Kulumbegov is in Moscow seeking
Russia's recognition of his region's self-proclaimed independence
from Georgia, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Moscow.
Kulumbegov said that Russian alone can guarantee stability in the
region. In 1990, South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia
with the aim of uniting with North Ossetia, which is across the
border in Russia. In response to South Ossetia's efforts to secure
independence, the Georgian government revoked the region's
autonomous status.  (Hal Kosiba, RFE/RL, Inc.)

                    CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

SERBIAN & MONTENEGRIN ELECTIONS.  The latest unofficial results of
the presidential elections in Serbia show Slobodan Milosevic with
a convincing lead in 114 of the 188 municipalities in Serbia,
Kosovo, and Vojvodina. With 63% of the vote counted, Milosevic
received 55.9% against Milan Panic's 34.3%. According to Serbia's
Institute for Statistics, the complete unofficial results of the
presidential election is expected at 15:00 CET on 23 December and
of the parliamentary elections on 24 December.  Final results are
expected on 25 December.  In the federal assembly elections the
ruling Socialist Party is leading, followed by the Serbian Radical
Party, the Democratic Movement of Serbia (DEPOS) and finally the
Democratic Party. For Serbia's 250-seat parliament, the SPS is
saying it has won 99 seats, the SRS--75, and DEPOS--50.  Radio
Serbia carried the report on 22 December. Radio Montenegro reports
that incumbent president Momir Bulatovic failed to win over 50% of
the vote and will have to enter a second round of elections in
less than two weeks against Branko Kostic, a former federal vice
president. In partial official returns Bulatovic received 42.2%
versus Kostic's 23%. In the local, republican, and federal
legislative elections, candidates of the ruling Democratic Party
of Socialists received the highest number of votes with 42.5%.
(Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL, Inc.)

... <abridged>

[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled  by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
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