Yeltsin’s Archrival Drops Ouster Call : Russia: Parliament Speaker Khasbulatov says he no longer backs impeachment in today’s showdown. President warns of covert plans for his overthrow.

President Boris N. Yeltsin warned Russians on Thursday that covert plans to overthrow him are being put into action, but there was a sign that the tide may be turning in his favor when his archrival backed off from calls that he be impeached.

Apparently affected by predictions that an attempt to dump Russia’s first popularly elected president could not garner the two-thirds majority of Parliament that it needs to pass, the Speaker of the Congress of People’s Deputies, Ruslan I. Khasbulatov, announced: “I’m not a supporter of some sort of impeachment.”

But while Khasbulatov appeared to be wavering, opposition deputies swore that they would bring down Yeltsin when the president and Parliament face off in a scheduled showdown today.

“We are determined to move for impeachment,” said Deputy Oleg Plotnikov.

On the eve of a session of the Parliament convened to consider removing the president from office, both Yeltsin and Khasbulatov took their cases to the nation via television.

Yeltsin used every ounce of his gruff authority in a stern, nine-minute address in an effort to persuade lawmakers to back off from the power struggle that may climax with his ouster at today’s session.

“Today it is possible to say decisively: One of the scenarios of the overthrow of the president has started to be carried out,” Yeltsin said in his televised speech. “They want to do this using the deputies’ hands, behind the backs of the people of Russia.”

For his part, Khasbulatov, who had called for impeachment earlier in the week, said he still sees a chance for compromise--if Yeltsin publicly renounces his declaration of last Saturday that he plans to rule by presidential fiat until an April 25 referendum.

“Yeltsin should say, ‘I was wrong, let’s solve this together, let’s form a government together and leave it alone,’ ” Khasbulatov said. He also demanded that Yeltsin drastically soften his radical economic reforms.

Yeltsin has tacitly admitted error, first delaying publication of the decree that would impose presidential rule, then omitting the idea when the decree was published Wednesday.

On Thursday, Yeltsin vowed to keep all his actions strictly legal. But otherwise, the Russian president showed not a glimmer of accommodation to Khasbulatov when he told viewers, with a hint of his trademark, curled-lip snarl, that he expects the Congress to try to curtail his presidential powers yet again.

“Remember,” he warned deputies, “if the Congress passes the historically wrong decision, it will plunge the people into the depths of conflict.”

As the showdown loomed, Moscow authorities said they are concerned about the rising tension in the capital. They said they expect large demonstrations both for and against Yeltsin outside the Kremlin walls today.

“It is very tense and very complex,” Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov said. “Today, work collectives, political parties and public groups are very agitated.”

Politics seemed to be getting so out of hand that deputies were not even certain whether the Congress would be held in its usual site, the Grand Kremlin Palace. Rumors circulated that Yeltsin had barred deputies from the Kremlin under the pretext that parts of the walled enclave at the heart of Moscow are under repair. But a government spokesman said the Congress will meet in its usual Kremlin venue.

The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church appealed again for a compromise, warning that “blood may be spilled, civil war may break out.”

Across the political spectrum, the forces were lining up Thursday, most of them coming out for Yeltsin. Several reformist Russian officers declared their loyalty to the president at a news conference and said most of the officer corps agrees with them. Miners in the Kuznetsk Basin in western Siberia threatened an open-ended strike if Yeltsin is removed.

Opinion polls continued to favor Yeltsin. One poll by the respected All-Russia Public Opinion Center found that Yeltsin had a 50% approval rating compared to only 2% for Khasbulatov.

Many of the Congress’ 1,033 deputies converged on the Parliament building to register for today’s session as speculation mounted about whether the opposition has the votes to remove the 62-year-old former Communist maverick.

“Our calculations, based on votes in the last two congresses, show that we may come 40 to 70 votes short of impeaching the president,” said Plotnikov, the opposition deputy. “But the psychological situation has changed in our favor since the last Congress, and I hope we’ll get the two-thirds.”

Sergei M. Shakhrai, Yeltsin’s top legal adviser, predicted that opposition deputies would try to use a recent amendment to the constitution that says a president automatically loses his powers if he violates the country’s “national structure”--that is, if he tries to dissolve or shut down any national legislative body. The amendment was passed by a Congress skittish that Yeltsin might dissolve it.

But the amendment does not specify who is to determine such a violation, and most parliamentary legal experts said they believe the amendment is too vague to be applied in the current situation.

If opposition lawmakers muster only the 600 or so impeachment votes they expect, they may then try other ways of getting at the Russian president. Khasbulatov noted ominously that some people think Russia should not have a presidency at all, and others said the Cabinet should answer directly to Parliament.

If the conservative Congress majority does manage to oust Yeltsin, the constitution calls for Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi to take over for three months, until new elections can be held.

Yeltsin, meanwhile, remained firm in his demand that Russians be allowed to vote April 25 on whether they still have confidence in their president and his reforms.

Although Yeltsin and Khasbulatov remained locked in conflict, it seemed more and more likely that they would agree on one thing: Russia needs early elections to resolve its strife. It cannot wait until deputies would normally come up for election in 1995, or Yeltsin in 1996.

Khasbulatov has been calling directly for new elections, and Yeltsin’s referendum is supposed to include a question on a new law that would require prompt new elections.

As the political battle neared its climax, Yeltsin’s Cabinet introduced an economic element by announcing a series of emergency measures designed to please the public. It said it plans to clamp down on credit and the issuing of money to bring Russia relief from soaring inflation. It also plans to raise interest rates for depositors and simplify the procedure for allotting plots of land to private owners.

OFFICERS BACK YELTSIN: Reformists say the president can count on them. A24