ARRESTS IN KYRGYZSTAN SET TO BE CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION.

Kyrgyz police announced today the arrest of three deputy ministers–of finance, industry and ecology, respectively–and of several department heads in the ministries of finance and agriculture. According to Internal Affairs Minister Omurbek Kutuev, the operation had been planned for months and represents the toughest anticorruption measure in the republic since independence (Itar-Tass, December 14; see also Georgia’s planned anticorruption measures in the South Caucasus section below).

YELTSIN CONTINUES TO ASSERT HIMSELF, CANS VLADIVOSTOK MAYOR.