Yeltsin Blames Gorbachev--but Says He’s a Better Leader Now : Congress: ‘The country--and Russia above all--became different. The president became different too,’ the Russian leader asserts.

Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin on Tuesday blamed last month’s conservative coup d’etat on Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s shifting political course, particularly his refusal to get tough with the hard-line right.

But he said that the failed putsch had changed Gorbachev.

“Personally, I have much more trust today in Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev than three weeks ago--before the putsch,” Yeltsin told the Congress of People’s Deputies, the national Parliament.

With Gorbachev sitting behind him, Yeltsin spelled out their past rivalry, its cost to the country and their new willingness to work together in a relationship that has finally become “very open, very frank and sincere.”

“After the coup, the country--and Russia above all--became different,” Yeltsin said. “The president became different too. He found strength in himself to re-evaluate a lot of things. This step deserves confidence.”

But this is Gorbachev’s “last chance,” Yeltsin said later in an interview with the American Cable News Network.

“If he continues together with the democratic movement and with Russia, if he recognizes the independence of all other republics, yes, then his political life will be extended,” Yeltsin said of Gorbachev.

Once again, Gorbachev was being reminded of the new political balance in the country by a man he had dismissed from the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo, a man whose populism he disparaged, a man whom he saw more as a threat to democracy--but a man who had rallied the people and saved his reforms, and who, consequently, now sets the country’s agenda.

The criticism undoubtedly stung.

“I think there should be some understanding of my position,” Gorbachev said. “We are all one, side by side. We should not spit on each other.”

But sitting together through the long day of debate at the Congress, the two men appeared unusually at ease with one another, conferring often and later chatting amiably on their way out.

Yeltsin had been harsh in his comments on Gorbachev’s political wavering, particularly the way in which he had veered toward the right, over the past year.

“The whole country felt with concern that President Gorbachev’s course was sharply swerving toward the right,” Yeltsin told the deputies Tuesday. “One position after another was abandoned. The KGB’s repressive role was strengthened. The army’s participation in the solution of political questions was legalized. Control of the mass media was toughened. . . .

“Yes, today, we have the right to lodge complaints against President Gorbachev.”

Gorbachev had repeatedly spurned the support of liberal reformers, Yeltsin said, and through one misjudgment after another had created the political environment for the coup.

“His inconsistency in implementing reforms, indecisiveness, sometimes capitulation to the aggressive onslaught of the party elite--all that created favorable ground for a comeback by the totalitarian system,” Yeltsin said.

Gorbachev had to know the political leanings, Yeltsin said, of men like Prime Minister Valentin S. Pavlov, KGB chief Vladimir A. Kryuchkov, Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov and Vice President Gennady I. Yanayev--all Gorbachev appointees who had conspired to oust him and seize power.

Yeltsin told CNN that his relations with Gorbachev had been “irreconcilable” at the beginning of the year, then improved to the point where they were “very difficult” and had by April developed into cooperation.

“Before the coup, he did not trust me,” Yeltsin acknowledged. “He trusted his advisers who tried to instill fear of me in him, and they told him that Yeltsin wanted to remove him from power, that Yeltsin was intransigent, that Yeltsin had only one idea--to take Gorbachev’s seat.”

With the coup and its defeat by a popular resistance led by Yeltsin, Gorbachev had “finally realized that it is only by relying on the broad-based democratic movement and by supporting democratic reform, economic reform” can the country be pulled out of its profound crisis.

“Now he believes in Russia,” Yeltsin said. “He has always been suspicious, but now he believes in Russia because Russia has saved not only democracy--it has saved our country. . . . “

Gorbachev was a different man on his return from three days of captivity at his summer house in the Crimea, Yeltsin said.

“I think that he believes that I am sincere in my relationship with him,” Yeltsin said of their first conversations after Gorbachev was free. “The tone of his voice, the openness, were there. . . . We were talking as two politicians that are working together very closely, and now I trust him.

“I trust him completely, or almost so, certainly much more so than three weeks ago when he was still capable of maneuvering and meandering.”

Yeltsin also spoke of the political covenant he had reached with Gorbachev to permit the Russian Federation, the country’s largest republic, to nominate certain key officials--the prime minister, the defense and interior ministers and KGB chief--in the central government.

What Yeltsin Has to Say

In an interview Tuesday with two CNN reporters, Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin spoke out:

On what he sees as Gorbachev’s change of heart:

”. . . After the coup, he had come back from the Crimea and he was a different man. . . . He has finally realized that . . . the broad-based democratic movement and . . . democratic reform, economic reform, the transition to the market, the integration into the world economic community, support for private enterprise, et cetera . . . can pull this country from this crisis.”

On his personal relationship with Gorbachev:

“I think that he believes that I am sincere in my relationship with him. The tone of his voice, the openness, were there. We were very open, we were very frank and sincere. . . . I trust him completely, or almost so, certainly much more so than three weeks ago when he was still capable of maneuvering and meandering.”

On Russia’s relations with other Soviet republics:

“Imperial attitudes are a thing of the past, and Russia will have equal relations with all other republics--but we will protect the interests of the people of Russia. . . . We should be building our economic relations in such a manner that the people of Russia should not always provide assistance to other nations. We need to build an equal relationship as regards trust, and trust in me as well.”

On internal security for nuclear weapons:

“We have set up a committee to control nuclear weapons so that (they are) not used either by hawks or ultra-left- or ultra-right-wing forces or terrorists, because this is very dangerous. . . . Apart from the central government, we want Russia to control nuclear weapons and to be responsible for nuclear weapons on the territory of Russia, and we want to be answerable to the whole international community so that we keep a finger on the button as well.”

On nuclear arms control:

“We are in favor of total elimination of nuclear weapons in Russia. . . . But then there are certain factors involved, i.e., reasonable security. We need to maintain parity with other nations, and we need to promote the idea of non-proliferation and extend it to other countries. I think personally that it is not a major victory when 50% of nuclear weapons are earmarked for elimination in a situation when 5% is enough to destroy the whole world.

“We need to continue our work to eliminate all nuclear weapons, and Russia will work to bring that about. Also . . . we need to prevent further testing of nuclear weapons and will call on President Bush and all the other nuclear powers to stop the tests.”

On the KGB and telephone wiretaps:

“Seven million people in their homes are being bugged and this is against the law. This is unconstitutional. All telephones were tapped. No matter where I called from, telephones were tapped. . . . So I call for the elimination of the so-called 12th department of the KGB. . . . For the past few days, my telephones have been working much better. They are not clicking any longer.”

On Gorbachev’s future:

“Now this is his last chance. . . . If he continues together with the democratic movement and with Russia, if he recognizes the independence of all other republics, yes, then his political life will be extended.”