Soviet Leaders Trying to Discredit Him, Yeltsin Says

Popular politician Boris N. Yeltsin said today the Soviet leadership was trying to discredit him by announcing on the floor of Parliament that he had faked a reported assassination attempt against him.

But other deputies appeared to have little sympathy for Yeltsin and some suggested there should be a parliamentary ethics committee to discuss cases like his.

The day before, Interior Minister Vadim Bakatin told incredulous deputies that a soaking-wet Yeltsin went to police on the night of Sept. 28 saying someone tried to kill him.

“Unknown persons dragged him into a car and put a sack over his head. He was dragged out of the car and thrown off a bridge in the Moscow River,” Bakatin said Yeltsin told police.

“Having swum 300 meters down river, he climbed out, had a rest and went to the police.”

Later Yeltsin asked police not to report the incident. He denied there had been an assassination attempt and asked police to close the case, Bakatin said.

The charges, coming a few weeks after allegations that Yeltsin had drunk his way through a U.S. tour, appeared to raise new questions about the character of the man who is widely considered the Soviet Union’s most popular politician.

Yeltsin told deputies today no one had tried to kill him but did not deny that he had gone to police with his tale of the incident, which he said was part of his “private life.”

He said the matter should not have been discussed in Parliament and told reporters: “It is the wish of the leadership to discredit a deputy, to diminish his authority and to distract the voters from more painful subjects.”