Yeltsin Gets Backing of Reformist Officers : Russia: Breaking their neutrality, they say they won’t let lawmakers oust the president without the people’s consent.

Breaking the Russian army’s neutral silence, several officers declared publicly Thursday that President Boris N. Yeltsin can count on them and their hundreds of thousands of brother officers in his power struggle.

“Even if he is impeached, the army will not let Yeltsin be removed from power without the agreement of the people,” Lt. Col. Alexander Zhilin, a military journalist, told a news conference called by reformist officers.

Zhilin said that in an informal poll of officers around the country, he found that 86% support Yeltsin. He acknowledged, however, that the survey was unscientific.

On the eve of Yeltsin’s political showdown with Russia’s conservative Parliament, the possible behavior of the 2.5-million-member military forces remained the most frightening element of the country’s acute political crisis.

Conceivably, if Parliament were to oust Yeltsin but he refused to go, the military could split into two opposing armed camps, one supporting the president and the other supporting the Parliament, perhaps leading to civil war.

Or politicians on one side could succeed in swaying the officer corps to their cause and use troops against the other side.

Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev has pleaded with Russia’s leadership to quit trying “to play the army card” and leave the military out of its political games.

“The law says that the army must remain outside of politics,” Grachev told the Russian Parliament last Sunday. “Thoughtless actions can split the armed forces. What will be the result? Bloodshed, no doubt.”

Lawmakers had demanded to know whether the military would support Yeltsin in his move to claim special decree-making powers and force an April 25 referendum on a new constitution and his own presidency.

On Thursday, the top brass of the Defense Ministry warned soldiers of attempts to drag them into the political fray and said it is sure that servicemen will “show restraint, calm and organization and do everything to preserve civic peace and agreement in society.”

Since Saturday, Russia’s officer corps has remained obediently silent on the surface, although Grachev acknowledged that within individual units, tension was rising. Zhilin’s statements were the first indication that the fever had risen to the point that officers were prepared to go public with their political views.

“We don’t see a more democratic way out than letting the people decide,” said Zhilin, referring to Yeltsin’s push for a referendum to resolve the stalemate between Russia’s executive and legislative branches.

Zhilin demanded an apology from Parliament Chairman Ruslan I. Khasbulatov, who had dismissed Grachev’s report as evasive. He warned that “things can get very hot” for Khasbulatov if he does not say he is sorry.

“The officer corps will defend its minister and its commander in chief,” he said. “The army will not oversee its own castration by politicians.”

Andrei Goptar, deputy chairman of the Independent Military Union, which claims more than 1,000 members, maintained that the army is far quieter than Zhilin portrayed it. But he, too, reported that most officers support Yeltsin.

“Most officers back the president’s appeal to the people because most officers are tired of various political battles and just want a normal political situation so they can fulfill their functions,” Goptar said.

If the support for Yeltsin is as widespread as the officers assert, it is a surprising groundswell for the man who has helped oversee the dismantling of the mighty Soviet military machine and the former superpower. The Soviet army once totaled nearly 5 million men at arms and cowed the world. The Russian military is a sad shadow of its Soviet counterpart, having left much of its best equipment on its old front lines in former Soviet republics.

It is also reeling under massive budget cuts and the tremendous difficulties of trying to absorb tens of thousands of officers brought back from the former empire to a homeland where they lack housing and jobs.

Exploiting widespread officer discontent, a renegade group known as the Officers’ Assembly has been trying to whip up support for Yeltsin’s opposition, reminding veterans of their army’s former greatness and the privileges they once enjoyed under Soviet communism.

Nikolai Moskovchenko, a leader of the reformist officers’ union known as Shield, alleged that members of the Officers’ Assembly have been traveling around the Moscow region trying to incite officers against Yeltsin.