President Merges City And Oblast

<BR>Russian President Boris Yeltsin has approved a proposal to merge the administrations of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast. Oblast Governor and Deputy Prime Minister Vadim Gustov has been made responsible for the process. "If anyone gets in the way of the merger, the president will personally get involved and fire them," said Gustov.<BR>Vadim Gustov's proposed merger mechanism includes a public referendum. However, no documents have been sent by Moscow yet, and some say that the entire process is unconstitutional. Also, few believe that St Petersburgers will vote for unification: the economic situation is far worse in the oblast. The merger will also be damaging to the two administrations themselves, who will be threatened by redundancies, and local bureaucrats are likely to attempt to slow down the process.