YELTSIN SETS TASK TO DRAFT PROGRAMME OF ACTION TO PROTECT RUSSIA'S INTERESTS IN VIEW OF PLANS FOR NATO'S EXPANSION EASTWARD

MOSCOW, January 6. (From RIA Novosti correspondent). Russian President Boris Yeltsin set the task to draw up a programme of specific and effective actions towards protecting the interests of the Russian state in connection with the plans for NATO's expansion eastward. He did so at a meeting in the Kremlin here today that examined the problems of relations between Russia and NATO.

As the RIA Novosti correspondent learnt from well-informed sources in the President's entourage, the meeting, which lasted about an hour and a half, negatively assessed the plans for NATO's expansion. Boris Yeltsin gave specific instructions to every participant in the meeting attended, among others, by Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin, head of the Presidential Administration Anatoly Chubais, Secretary of the Security Council Ivan Rybkin, Secretary of the Defence Council Yuri Baturin and heads of the military departments. The Foreign Ministry was assigned the role of coordinator of implementation of the proposed plans. (kur/lnv)