Yeltsin to Seek Presidency of Key Soviet Republic
Soviet Communist Party maverick Boris N. Yeltsin said Wednesday he has promised his supporters that he will seek the presidency of the Russian Federation, the largest of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union.
Nominations are now being held for the republic’s Supreme Soviet, and the outspoken Yeltsin has been put forward as candidate by a number of cities, including Leningrad and Moscow.
“At all meetings where I was nominated, I was given political instructions by the electors not to turn down the fight for the chairman (presidency) of the Russian Supreme Soviet,” Yeltsin told the weekly newspaper Literary Gazette. “At one meeting I gave my word I would not turn it down.”
Yeltsin, the only Soviet politician in memory who has made a comeback after being sacked from the Politburo, must first win election to the republic’s Supreme Soviet in March. Members then will vote to decide on the presidency.
Because of his populist criticism of party privileges, Yeltsin is considered a shoo-in for election.
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