A delegation of the State Duma composed by Mr Mikhail YURIEV, deputy chairman (Yabloko Faction), Mr Roman POPKOVICH ("Our House is Russia" Faction) and Mr Yuri SEVENARD (Communist Faction) have a meeting this morning with the Subcommittee for Defense and Security and the EP Delegation with Russia.

During the meeting Olivier Dupuis, secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and MEP (ARE) asked the members of the State Duma if they intend to approuve the law on conscientious objection already voted in first lecture by the State Duma in 1994 and twice rejected in second lecture in 1995.

The answer of Mr Mikhail YURIEV was the following: "the law will be passed very soon. And because the Army will be quite completely professional in the Year 2000, that question is not a big question for us".