WHAT WILL THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS IN RUSSIA MEAN?
 U.VA.'S RUSSIAN EXPERTS HAVE THE ANSWERS

	On June 16, Russians will flock to the polls to vote for a
president.

	The stakes are high.  The outcome of this election likely
will set Russia's political and economic course for the foreseeable
future, both domestically and internationally.

	Benefits from the changing economy in post-Soviet Russia
have not been distributed equally among the population. The older
generation, especially retirees living on pensions, have suffered
greatly, while younger people, more able to adapt to the new
circumstances, generally have suffered less.  Indeed, younger voters
tend to favor the move toward a free-market economy, while older
voters, despite the political repression and dearth of consumer
goods in the past, recall the security of the Soviet days with
nostalgia.  Gennady Zyuganov, the leading Communist challenger, is
proving popular with older voters, while President Boris Yeltsin has
been campaigning hard among the younger set.

	Regardless of which way the vote goes on Sunday, June 16,
what happens in Russia matters to people in the United States. Not
only do events there stand to affect the thousands of American
individuals who work, travel, study and do business in post-Soviet
Russia, but they also influence global political stability, given
Russia's proximity to Europe, China, Japan and the volatile Middle
East.  U.Va. experts can help you explain to your readers what the
outcome of the Russian elections will mean there and here at home.


Leslie Grayson -- professor of international business economics,
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Conducts research
on business in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. (Ph.D.,
Michigan) office (804) 924-4808; home (804) 973-6815;
graysonl@darden.gbus.virginia.edu

Sandra Gubin -- assistant professor, government and foreign
affairs.  Teaches comparative government, focusing on the former
Soviet republics. Research centers on the constitutional and legal
development of post-Soviet systems and the transition of Russian
politics. (Ph.D., Michigan) office (804) 924-7577, (804) 924-6993;
sig9w@virginia.edu

Allen Lynch -- director, Center for Russian and East European
Studies.  Associate professor, government and foreign affairs.
Research focuses on a comparative analysis of the disintegration of
the Soviet and Yugoslav systems and the geopolitics of the
post-Soviet era. Author of 1992 book: "The Soviet Break-up and U.S.
Foreign Policy." (Ph.D., Columbia) office (804) 924-3033, (804)
924-3192; home (804) 977 1868; al4u@virginia.edu

Paul Stephan -- professor, School of Law.  Expert on the Soviet
legal system; chairman of American Bar Association's planning group
for the Commonwealth of Independent States; member of board of
advisors for ABA's Central and Eastern European Law Initiative.
(J.D., Virginia) office (804)924-7098; home (804) 293-6939;
pbs@virginia.edu

Yuri Urbanovich -- visiting scholar, interdisciplinary Center for
the Study of Mind and Human Interaction, which takes a
psychoanalytical look at political science, under the auspices of
the School of Medicine.  Coordinated and participated in a series of
five conferences on "Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Political Change"
in Kaunas, Lithuania; Riga, Latvia; Tallinn and Parnu, Estonia; and
Charlottesville, 1992 95.  Presenter at workshop on Russian economic
and security issues at Oxford University, 1993. (Ph.D., Graduate
School of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs) office (804) 982-3836; home (804) 296-5148;
mind@virginia.edu
June 7, 1996