Effort to Remove Yeltsin Could Start This Week

President Boris N. Yeltsin, his plan to rule by decree proclaimed illegal Tuesday by Russia’s highest court, slipped closer to impeachment proceedings that could begin by the end of this week.

Yeltsin’s top political foe, Parliament Speaker Ruslan I. Khasbulatov, declared: “It is absolutely clear that there are grounds for initiating the impeachment process. That is without question.”

After an all-night session, the Russian Constitutional Court ruled early Tuesday morning that Yeltsin’s announcement of a temporary “special regime” and an April 25 referendum violated the constitution on eight major points.

The court did not mention impeachment. But Khasbulatov, who is also chairman of the standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, said the ruling is enough to convene the Congress of People’s Deputies to vote Yeltsin out.

Russia’s power struggle reached such intensity that it intruded even on Yeltsin’s personal grief as he tearfully buried his 84-year-old mother, who died of a heart attack Sunday. During the funeral, Constitutional Court Chairman Valery D. Zorkin approached Yeltsin and handed him a copy of the court’s verdict, according to the Interfax news agency.

Khasbulatov called the Supreme Soviet into session, but only briefly. As Yeltsin opponents among the deputies gleefully shouted for immediate action to oust the president, Khasbulatov surprised them by calling for an adjournment until today.

“We have to take into account a tragic event,” he said, referring to the funeral of Klavdiya Yeltsina. “Let us now leave this hall and come together tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock.”

The Supreme Soviet, when it convenes today, is scheduled to discuss a date for the Congress; Parliament leaders have recommended Friday.

“Probably, Khasbulatov did not want to look heartless in the eyes of the world public,” one liberal deputy told the British news service Reuters after the session.

Among the mourners at the rites for Yeltsin’s mother at a Moscow cemetery was Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi, who has criticized Yeltsin’s actions and who would take over if Yeltsin was removed from office. Also present were Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin and Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev, one of the three security ministers who have backed Yeltsin.

As the crisis deepened, it brought increasing tension everywhere, from a fractious demonstration by about 15,000 Yeltsin supporters in St. Petersburg to unrest among the Cossacks of the Don River basin, who declared that they want to take control of their region.

In the Russian Parliament building, the White House, deputies predicted that if the Congress does vote to remove Yeltsin from office, he will ignore the decision, and Russia will enter a confusing period in which two presidents claim power.

“If the Congress votes (for removal), then the most terrible thing will happen,” Deputy Vladimir Lysenko said. “Right now, the conflict is only at the very top. But then there would be two powers, each with a vertical structure, and that would force people to decide which half they’re for. And so the country will (be) split in two as happened at the beginning of the century, and there will be tragic consequences.”

Yeltsin’s advisers indicated that the president, convinced that the people will support him, will try to mobilize them on his behalf in coming days, raising the political temperature still higher.

“The president should again appeal to the people,” said Col. Gen. Dmitri Volkogonov, a Yeltsin adviser, “saying, ‘I ask you to express your will today, in protests and more.’ ”

Even the staid legalists of the Constitutional Court succumbed to the sense of political urgency. Ernest Ametistov, one of the court’s 13 judges, said their all-night session got “simply hysterical” and that his colleagues ignored all his objections that they were violating their mandate.

“I was told: ‘We are in the middle of a coup d’etat. There will be tanks soon, and we will all be arrested. Let’s not leave the building! Let’s double the guards!’ ” Ametistov recounted.

The 13-man court passed its ruling against Yeltsin on a 9-3 vote--one judge was in the hospital--despite complaints from Ametistov and others that it was violating the law on its own procedures in a dozen basic ways by rushing the decision.

The court’s attack on Yeltsin brought a counterassault from the president’s allies, who argued that court Chairman Zorkin had provided grounds for his own removal by denouncing Yeltsin publicly before the court had ruled.

Russia’s Parliament also faced a looming crisis. Khasbulatov proposed elections as soon as possible for both the Congress and the presidency.

All three branches of Russia’s government thus teetered on the brink of illegitimacy.

The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexi II, issued a nearly unprecedented appeal urging political leaders to step back from a conflict “that could ruin Russia.” He supported the Russian army’s decision to keep its distance from the country’s political strife.

Khasbulatov warned that Yeltsin’s move to grab more control of the country “puts the legitimacy of power in danger.”

He also complained that Western leaders like President Clinton are supporting Yeltsin so loyally because they have a mistaken idea that he is the country’s only sincere reformer.

“I think it’s better to support democracy in the Russian Federation,” he said. “There’s a distorted opinion that the struggle here is between reformers and anti-reformers.”

In fact, Khasbulatov said, he objects not to reforms but “to the stupidities committed in the course of the reforms.”

To impeach Yeltsin, a simple majority of the 1,033 members of the Congress of People’s Deputies must vote against him. The next step, to remove him from office, requires a two-thirds vote. The president’s opponents were already beginning to lobby for his removal.

“All the way back in February of 1991, I said that Boris Nikolayevich will bring so much harm to the people of Russia that it will take long years to recover,” Deputy Svetlana Goryacheva said. “So I think in this situation impeachment is inevitable. Impeachment will help stabilize Russia.”

Yeltsin’s allies, however, continued to argue that removing Yeltsin could well bring a return to communism.

“We’re not talking about the president, we’re talking about the future of Russia,” Volkogonov said. “There can be a return to totalitarianism.”

Deputies and advisers said there is still a chance to defuse the confrontation between Yeltsin and his opponents, but it would take some maneuvering. Yeltsin has yet to publish the order declaring his rule by decree, so he could remove the grounds for his impeachment by eliminating from the decree all the points that the Constitutional Court declared illegal.

Or the Parliament could drop its opposition to his call for a referendum that would allow Russians to vote on their confidence in Yeltsin and on a new constitution giving less power to lawmakers.

The Constitutional Court ruled that Yeltsin could hold a referendum but that he could not use it to change the division of power, as he intended. It said he also had no right to rule by decree, to ignore decisions by the Parliament and to put local officials under his exclusive control.

Yeltsin continued to issue new decrees Tuesday. He put out an order directing his top government officials to make sure all his decrees are obeyed, and he affirmed his right to fire those who ignore his orders. Another decree guaranteed freedom of the press.

Path of the Russian Power Struggle

Here is a look at the power struggle in Russia, where Boris N. Yeltsin’s radical reforms have incurred the opposition of extreme conservatives and nationalists:

Action Taken Through Tuesday

The President: In a televised address Saturday, Russia President Boris N. Yeltsin said he wanted a new vote of confidence from the people, popular endorsement of the concept of private ownership, and approval of his proposal for a new constitution and a new parliament.

The Court: The Constitutional Court--Russia’s highest court--ruled Tuesday that Yeltsin’s decress violated the Russian Constitution. Under Russian law, such a conclusion allows Russian legislators to proceed with impeachment. But a court official described the decision as “very mild.”

Possible Future Moves

The Supreme Soviet: Russia’s 247-member standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, called a meeting for today. Chairman Ruslan I. Khasbulatov said Tuesday that there are grounds for initiating the impeachment process. For that to happen, this body would have to convene the Congress of People’s Deputies.

Congress of People’s Deputies: Only the Congress can decide to impeach Yeltsin. Its 1,033 members, who normally meet only twice a year, can remove Yeltsin with a two-thirds vote. Such a vote would declare his powers void immediately and permanently.