Yeltsin Hits Back At Rivals

Speaking slowly but clearly in a six-minute radio address, apparently recorded in hospital, Yeltsin backed beleagured Alexander Lebed over a Chechen peace deal after the security tsar was jeered in parliament on Wednesday for signing it. Yeltsin later discussed Chechnya with Lebed at the hospital where he is preparing for heart surgery and Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev started talks in Moscow to try to reinforce the August 31 peace agreement.

The 65-year-old President's main aim, both in his speech and by increasing his workload this week, seemed to be to reassure the nation of almost 150 million that he is in charge and well enough to have a bypass operation in six to 10 weeks.

 

I am in touch with what is going on in the country. I am helped by a strong team of professionals, said Yeltsin, who had two heart attacks last year and has been in hospital awaiting the operation since September 13.

Doctors say he may have had a third attack before the presidential election runoff. Scoffing at talk that he was too ill to rule the country, he added: I said before the elections and repeat now