Yeltsin Rival Suggests Deal to Share Power

Liberal economist Grigory A. Yavlinsky switched roles Friday from long-shot presidential contender to kingmaker, proposing to share power with President Boris N. Yeltsin in exchange for support that could clinch the incumbent’s reelection.

Yavlinsky’s conditions for joining forces with Yeltsin for next month’s vote include the immediate resumption of peace talks to end the war in Chechnya and the firing of Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev and other top Kremlin officials Yavlinsky views as responsible for Russia’s current economic and political crises.

Even more daunting is Yavlinsky’s demand that Yeltsin agree to cede powers from the currently omnipotent presidency to the prime minister--a post Yavlinsky clearly sees himself assuming.

Yeltsin, on a campaign swing to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, reacted coolly to the terms outlined by his strongest democratic challenger, which were contained in an open letter to voters published in the newspaper Izvestia.

“I do not quite agree to Grigory Yavlinsky’s terms,” Yeltsin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying at the Krasnoyarsk airport. He described his opponent’s demands to accelerate reform as “very radical” and his proposed Cabinet shake-up as “too much.”

But the lure of support from the ambitious and charismatic Yavlinsky, whose Yabloko political party holds sway with intellectuals, business people and committed democrats, could tempt Yeltsin to reconsider the conditions, which Yavlinsky called nonnegotiable.

If Yeltsin runs in partnership with the bright, 44-year-old Yavlinsky, he would be grooming a more acceptable heir-apparent than the stodgy Chernomyrdin. And he would be telegraphing to Russians and the rest of the world that the reform path will not be abandoned.

Yeltsin now risks a second-place finish, or worse, in the June 16 election, as Communist Party leader Gennady A. Zyuganov leads in most opinion polls.

Should he accept his challenger’s proposal, Yeltsin could use the agreement as a face-saving, fence-mending method of removing some of the biggest obstacles to his reelection, such as the Chechen conflict and the widely despised Grachev.

Yavlinsky gave Yeltsin one week to pledge unconditional agreement or face a reelection bid without the support of the democratic opposition.

Meanwhile, Yeltsin got an important boost from the leaders of former Soviet republics.

“Ukraine hopes reforms begun in Russia will be continued by those who initiated them,” Ukrainian President Leonid D. Kuchma told a summit of leaders from the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Commonwealth links Russia and 11 other former Soviet republics in a loose economic union.

And Armenian President Levon A. Ter-Petrosyan warned of the menacing policies Russia’s neighbors might expect if the Communists regain power.