Zyuganov

RUSSIA'S out-of-control vodka drinking, its environmental nightmare and backward health conditions are taking a staggering toll on the country's population. Last year alone, 716,900 more people died than were born. "Russia is on the verge of a demographic crisis, " warns Valentin Pokrovsky, chief of the Academy of Medical Sciences. "If this trend does not change in 15 to 20 years, it will be very difficult for the country because for each working person, there will be one or two people who cannot work."

PARIS -- During the weeks leading up to Boris Yeltsin's announcement that he will run for another presidential term, Western governments and press were conducting a frivolous debate over whom among Russia's presidential candidates the West should support.The debate is frivolous, if not perverse, because it ignores the irrelevance to Russian domestic politics of what the West now thinks or wants, and also fails to acknowledge the damage to post-Communist Russia the West has already done by well-intentioned interference in that country's affairs.

WHEN HE announced plans to leave Congress to campaign $$ full time for the White House, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said his No. 1 summer job would be to persuade retired Army Gen. Colin Powell to be his GOP running mate.Dole himself admits the task won't be easy. For one thing, any position he could offer Powell would represent a major income reduction for the much-admired ex-general, whose annual speaking fees alone run into the low seven figures. Then there's Powell's announced distaste for mudslinging, an ugly yet unavoidable part of any election campaign.

MOSCOW -- To the naked eye it looks as if Russia is suffering a political crisis over President Boris N. Yeltsin's health.Communist leaders as well as former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev are calling for him to resign. Alexander I. Lebed, Yeltsin's own national security chief, has suggested he step aside temporarily.And Communist and nationalist leaders in the State Duma had even planned to open parliament's fall session today with legislation designed to pry Yeltsin out of office by creating an independent medical panel to check the health of high officials and senior civil servants.

Moscow -- Nobody in Russian politics can get reporters out of bed on a Sunday morning like Vladimir Zhironovsky. Almost everything the loudmouth ultranationalist does makes a good story, and even if it isn't exactly news, it's usually worth it for the laughs.Case in point: Zhironovsky's 25th wedding anniversary earlier this year. He celebrated it by remarrying his wife in a Moscow church built in the days of Peter the Great. The ceremony was supposed to evoke the glories of czarist Russia, but it was also pure Zhironovsky, who used the opportunity to plug his campaign for president.

BELARUS' DECISION to seek close political, economic and cultural ties with Russia does not come as a surprise. Ever since the Soviet Union fell apart four years ago, Belarus has been an orphan. It has lacked the political will and national identity to make its independence work. Its industrialized economy is a basket case. Since home-grown politicians do not want to make tough decisions, Belarus leaders now hope the Big Brother in Moscow will make them.In its willingness to see its sovereignty eroded, Belarus is an exceptional case.

MOSCOW -- One furious Duma leader after another stood up yesterday, angrily blamed Viktor S. Chernomyrdin for the corruption and economic negligence of the past six years, then led the rank and file in an overwhelming vote against his nomination as prime minister.Every Communist voted against him. So did every member of the liberal Yabloko faction. Even one member of Chernomyrdin's party opposed him. And after it was over, President Boris N. Yeltsin said he would nominate Chernomyrdin again.

MOSCOW -- After his decisive re-election yesterday, President Boris N. Yeltsin made a televised address to the nation -- in what appeared to be much-improved health -- pleading for national reconciliation."

KUBINKA, Russia -- Sergei A. Kovalyov, small and frail looking, has come to a sanitarium here, 50 miles west of Moscow, to restore himself so he can take up his singular burden once more. The moral weight of Russia rests on his thin shoulders.Kovalyov, an ardent dissident in Soviet times, has become the most prominent critic of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and the war in Chechnya. An early ally, he has decided that he cannot support the president, even if it means that the Communists win the June 16 election.

MOSCOW -- After three months of economic collapse and do-nothing government, the political frustrations and resentments here have found a focus at last, and it's the age-old one. Russians call it the Jewish Question.The virulently anti-Semitic remarks of Albert Makashov, a Communist member of parliament, have driven wedges between allies, set factions against each other, and launched an overtly political struggle between the Communist Party and what it regards as the rich man's press.The scandal dominated the newspapers and television all last week and shows no signs of going away, as prosecutors in the coming days will seek to strip Makashov of his parliamentary immunity.