Michail SERGEEV
ALMATY, Sept 16 (THE GLOBE)
Today the speaker of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament Yegor Stroev in his interview to the American newspaper �New York Times� announced that the resignation of Boris Yeltsin would be the good for the country.
According to the third person of the state, �the President Yeltsin gained significant rights, but his authority does not stretches outside the Kremlin walls. If he saves his authority, we will lose the country,� he stated.
The Speaker of the Federation Council explained the American newspaper the authorities� weakness with the imperfection of the present Constitution. He considers the Constitution is to be changed.
Sabit Zhusupov, the director of the Kazakhstan Institute of Social-Economic Information and Prognosis commented this event for THE GLOBE.
In my opinion, the announcement of Yegor Stroev is not a sudden one. This is quite a logical consequence of that disorder which is now observed in Russia. The misbalance and chaotic situation in the high ranks of the authorities is being adequately shifted down.
Stroev�s announcement is especially symptomatic, as he always was loyal to both Yeltsin and his administration. This is a symptom of absolutely irreversible processes in the post-soviet space, a decline of the super-presidential governing, which has been exhausted.
In my opinion, at the present time our northern neighbours have several variants of the development of the events.
One of the variants is the dismissal of Yeltsin in favour of Vladimir Putin, when at first he will be the acting President, and then in three months he will become the President.
Another variant is connected with the conflict at the Chechen-Dagestani border and terrorist acts all over the country. The introduction of the extraordinary situation, which will be caused by the last events, will result in the abandonment of the parliamentary election. In this case the victory of the centrist block �Otechestvo � Vsya Russia� will be postponed.
MOSCOW, Sept 16 (AFP)
A truck bomb blew up outside an apartment block in a southern Russian town on Thursday, killing 17 people, as President Boris Yeltsin vowed to crush an unprecedented wave of terrorism sweeping Russia.
Police said a further 45 people were hospitalised in the city of Volgodonsk, 960 kilometres (600 miles) south of Moscow, when the facade of their eight-storey block of flats was ripped off by the blast.
Two children were killed in the explosion, the fourth bombing to target a residential building in an unprecedented campaign of terror which has left almost 300 dead and scores more injured in the past two weeks.
A defiant Yeltsin vowed to stand firm in the face of the terrorist threat as he discussed the latest outrage with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
�They once again are trying to frighten Russian citizens, spread terror and panic. But we won�t let the terrorists reach their goal. They will not break us,� Interfax quoted Yeltsin as saying.
�We have the strength and the means to put an end to terrorism,� he said, branding the attack a �barbaric terrorist act� which had targeted �innocent people - women, children, the elderly,� the presidency said.
Meanwhile the desperate search for survivors continued, with 150 rescue workers, scores of police and other emergency service staff using their bare hands to remove chunks of concrete from the blast scene.
Television pictures showed a massive water-filled crater, said by officials to measure some 15 metres (yards) across.
Officials said 437 people lived in the flats, adding that the building had cleared a security check as part of �Operation Whirlwind�, a nationwide counter-terrorism effort ordered by Yeltsin.
�Which is perhaps why the terrorists did not place the explosives in the building but outside in a truck,� Dmitry Nevzorov said.
Experts from the domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), were at the scene hunting for clues, said chief FSB spokesman Alexander Zdanovich.
�The fact that an explosive device was planted in a GAZ-53 (truck), fragments of which were scattered over 150 metres (yards), shows this was a terrorist act,� he said.
In Moscow, the FSB said it had foiled a string of bomb attacks in the capital over the past several days, finding timers set for dates up to next Tuesday during security checks, ITAR-TASS news agency quoted him as saying.
No group has yet claimed responsibility the latest attack.
But an unidentified caller to ITAR-TASS on Wednesday claimed two previous attacks in Moscow and a third in Dagestan for the little known Dagestan Liberation Army.
The caller, who spoke with a Caucasus accent, said two blasts at Moscow apartment blocks and a devastating car bomb on a military hostel in Dagestan, in which more than 270 people died, were a �warning� to Moscow to halt its month-long campaign to crush separatist Moslem militants in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan.
ALMATY, Sept 16
(THE GLOBE)
�At 1:30 a.m. there was an anonymous call to the operative department of internal affairs �02�. A man�s voice said that the trade house �Zangar� (the former CUM) would be exploded,� the high-rank representative of the city department on extraordinary situations announced to THE GLOBE on Thursday.
According to Yuryi Ilyin, the first who arrived to the place were divisions of the city department on extraordinary situations. In some time divisions of the city Department of Internal Affairs, CNS, centre of catastrophe medicine, fire service, as well as the republican operative rescue troop arrived.
For 15 minutes people were evacuated from the building and within the radius of 100 metres. The building was cordoned off. Six groups started the search with the help of trained dogs. Nothing was found for three hours of visual search of all premises.
�We thinks this was a false call,� Mr. Ilyin stated.
Approximately at the same time there was another call, and childish voice said that an explosive device had been placed in the school No. 113. In Yuryi Ilyin�s opinion, this was an occasional coincidence.
FROM THE EDITORIAL STAFF: Possibly, the called man (most probably, another call was just a childish joke) has an unstable state of mind, and the series of the Russian explosions made him to alarm both rescue and law-reinforcement services of the city. The investigation will show, if this is correct.
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