Yeltsin

JUST WHEN it looked as if Russia was at the bottom of its economic and political rope, President Boris Yeltsin surprised us by resuscitating Viktor Chernomyrdin as prime minister -- thus proving that there is still a way to go.A mere five months ago, Mr. Yeltsin took a gamble and appointed Sergei Kiriyenko as prime minister and fired the same Mr. Chernomyrdin, obviously dissatisfied with Mr. Chernomyrdin's performance. Mr. Yeltsin explained that he needed someone with fresh ideas and enthusiasm, someone who could revitalize the Russian economy.

Boris N. Yeltsin's landslide victory is a watershed event in the dismantling of the Soviet Communist system. Seventy-three years after Bolsheviks deposed Russia's standing government, voters have returned the Russian republic and Moscow and Leningrad city governments to non-Communist hands. They also want St. Petersburg, the pre-revolutionary name of Leningrad, restored.These expressions of popular will change the very dynamics of Soviet politics at a time when future power-sharing between the Kremlin and the republics is still to be defined.

MOSCOW -- Strategy takes many forms, and yesterday President Boris N. Yeltsin offered a compromise to the wary Russian Congress -- on an issue that he already had won.Mr. Yeltsin said he would subject several key Cabinet ministers to parliamentary confirmation -- with the implicit understanding that the Congress would in turn approve Yegor T. Gaidar as prime minister.The Russian leader had his reasons for reopening a contentious proposal that he had seemingly beaten back, just barely, Saturday.

MOSCOW -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin said today he would not resign from office during his current term but did not plan to seek a second term in 1996, Itar-Tass news agency said."

MOSCOW -- After months of criticizing Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev as a virtual dictator, the leader of the Russian republic, Boris N. Yeltsin, said yesterday that Mr. Gorbachev is in fact "an ally" of the democratic movement.Mr. Yeltsin said that by signing an agreement with nine of the 15 Soviet republics calling for a major power shift from the center to the constituents, Mr. Gorbachev had demonstrated that he "today is clear ly in favor of reforms, which is very important and which makes him our ally."

MOSCOW -- Less than a week after Croatia's rout of a Serbian army, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin called yesterday for a Moscow peace summit on the Balkans but also threatened to ignore United Nations trade sanctions by coming to the aid of Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.Foreign affairs specialists said Mr. Yeltsin's combination of mediation and threats were a seat-of-the-pants effort to bolster his own image at home and Russia's image abroad and also to reassert Moscow's traditional sympathies with the Serbs.

MOSCOW -- President Boris N. Yeltsin won a major political victory last night, as the Russian Central Bank agreed to stop resisting his free-market economic reforms.According to the Interfax news service, the bank initialed an agreement to phase out credits for ailing industries, reduce tax subsidies and stop propping up the ruble in international currency auctions.The agreement marks the latest and perhaps most significant consequence of Mr. Yeltsin's victory in last month's referendum, in which a majority of Russian voters gave him a vote of confidence and approved his economic policies.

MOSCOW -- President Boris N. Yeltsin described Russia's surprising parliamentary elections as a major reprimand and said yesterday that his government would give more attention to the problems of the poor.Conducting an hourlong news conference, Mr. Yeltsin said that he would not change his economic team or its reform program but that he would broaden the information channels to his office and foster dialogue between officials and the public in keeping with a "new, more open style."Mr. Yeltsin acknowledged the successes of those who had used primitive nationalism, outright lies and even dangerous provocations," but he avoided direct criticism of the person he saw as the major beneficiary of those tactics, Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky.

MOSCOW -- The threat to impeach Boris N. Yeltsin virtually evaporated at yesterday's opening of the special session of the Russian Congress, and both sides appeared to be moving closer to elections.Mr. Yeltsin's opponents did not have the votes to oust him. Compromise was in the air.A greater political crisis appeared to have been averted for the time being.President Yeltsin, still hoping to proceed with the April 25 referendum that the Congress found so offensive, rearranged his Cabinet, dumping some of the members who have drawn the most criticism from conservative legislators.

MOSCOW -- Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Russian leader Boris N. Yeltsin yesterday held their first substantial talks since their summer accord on economic reform dissolved in mutual accusations last month.A spokeswoman for Mr. Yeltsin described the meeting as productive, calling it a "breakthrough" in the perpetually strained relations between the country's two leading politicians. Details of any agreements reached could not be learned last night.Recent clashes of Mr. Gorbachev and Mr. Yeltsin over economic policy left potential foreign investors baffled and threatened to paralyze the planned transition to a market economy.