MOSCOW, September 28 (AVN) -- President Boris Yeltsin on Tuesday signed a decree granting additional powers to his administration, including the right to control arms and military equipment exports, a source in the presidential staff told the Military News Agency.
The presidential depratment for foreign policy was granted the power to "draft proposals on improvement of Russia's policy in international military cooperation," as well as to consider draft legal acts and other documents concerining military cooperation, including appointments and resignations of persons directly responsible for military cooperation or supervising it in federal executive bodies, which are sumbitted to the president," the source said.
"Changes in the powers of the foreign policy department are caused by a necessity to coordinate the Statute of the Russian President's Administration with [Yeltsin's] recent decree on international militarty cooperation," the source said.
According to the Agency's source in the Kremlin, these changes mean that the presidential administration will have the say in defining which Russian arms dealers are allowed to trade abroad, what products they are allowed to export and to what countries.