LUZHKOV TIPPED AS RUSSIA’S NEXT PRESIDENT.

First Deputy Premier Boris Nemtsov told the newspaper Izvestia in an interview published yesterday that he does not intend to run for president in 2000. He said he sees Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov as the likely favorite of the establishment, and predicted that the position of the regional bureaucracy will be a decisive factor in the voting. "The candidate who is backed by the bureaucrats organizing the elections will stand the best chance of winning them," Nemtsov said. In Nemtsov’s opinion, the bureaucracy is more likely to back Luzhkov even than Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Nemtsov hedged his bets, however, by saying that, should Boris Yeltsin decide to run for a third term, he would be sure to win since neither Luzhkov nor Chernomyrdin would run against him. (Izvestia, January 20)

Yeltsin Implies Sympathy for Kulikov’s Position.