Gorbachev, Yeltsin Still Poles Apart

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Russian republic leader Boris N. Yeltsin took their power struggle to the legislature today, and they demanded very different steps to rescue the economy and hold the Soviet Union together.

Gorbachev announced plans to remove military and government officials blocking his reform plans but indicated that he would not ask for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov.

Yeltsin, president of the Russian Federation, demanded Ryzhkov’s ouster and the formation of a new leadership with strong representation from the nation’s 15 restive republics.

Their conflicting speeches showed that the two leaders are still far from resolving their differences and ending the paralysis of power in the Soviet Union.

Yeltsin had said after a private meeting with Gorbachev on Sunday that the two leaders would form committees to work out a power-sharing agreement, creating hope for a unified effort to end the country’s economic crisis.

But Gorbachev told the Supreme Soviet legislature that Sunday’s meeting was merely “routine” and that he refused to give the Russian leader more national power.

Dropping his usually robust voice to a near-whisper in the cavernous chamber, Gorbachev said, “In a coalition government, if the Russian government gets any more power, it will mean discrimination against the other republics.”

Yeltsin sat stone-faced through Gorbachev’s speech. He later took the floor and demanded that Gorbachev agree within two weeks to form a new “extraordinary anti-crisis committee” that would govern in place of Ryzhkov and his Council of Ministers.

The committee, which would amount to a new Cabinet, would include representatives of all 15 republics. It would take immediate steps to provide more food for the country, buying it from the West if necessary, Yeltsin said.

“The economic and political crisis in the country has come to a head,” he told the 542-member Supreme Soviet. “The people’s patience has ended, and an explosion could occur at any time.”

Facing a disintegrating economy and secessionist movements in several republics, the lawmakers abandoned their agenda Wednesday and demanded that Gorbachev report to them on the state of the union--and on his relations with Yeltsin.

Yeltsin was dropped from the Communist Party Politburo in 1987 after criticizing Gorbachev’s reforms as too slow. He has been the president’s chief political rival for more than a year and consistently ranks above Gorbachev in public opinion polls.