Yeltsin Dismisses Reports He’ll Quit, Fires 2 Reformers

President Boris N. Yeltsin, stung by a flurry of reports that he would resign over Russia’s fiscal crisis, emerged from seclusion Friday and insisted on nationwide television that he will serve out his full term.

But, facing enormous criticism over his government’s mismanagement of the economy, the ailing 67-year-old president announced that he will not be a candidate for reelection when his term expires in less than two years.

“I want to say that I’m not going anywhere,” Yeltsin said in an interview broadcast on state-run television. “I’m not going to resign. I will work as I’m supposed to for my constitutional term. In 2000, there will be an election for a new president, and I will not run.”

But Yeltsin’s bid to remain in power comes at a price. In a major concession Friday, the Kremlin offered to give up a share of the president’s authority to the Communist-dominated Duma, the lower house of parliament.

And ending the era of leadership by his so-called young reformers, Yeltsin dismissed the two top officials who had been most closely associated with his failed effort to overhaul the economy along Western lines. The president fired Anatoly B. Chubais from his post as envoy to international lending institutions, and he also accepted the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Boris Y. Nemtsov, once thought by some to be Yeltsin’s heir apparent.

For Russia, agreement on the power-sharing pact with the Duma would mean a step back from attempts to impose Western-style, market-oriented measures on the economy. It is also likely to ensure the ascendancy of acting Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin--a onetime Soviet-era boss who previously served five years as Yeltsin’s prime minister.

But Yeltsin, while assuring the public that he would try to limit price hikes and prevent Russians from losing their savings, stopped short of proposing a plan to halt the collapse of the economy.

During the 10-minute segment of the interview shown on RTR television, Yeltsin appeared stiff and deliberate, sometimes waiting many seconds before answering a question. Asked what was the way out of the fiscal crisis, Yeltsin answered only in brief generalities.

“Of course, now, it would be naive to say we will take measures and so on and so forth so that people do not suffer,” Yeltsin said. “But nevertheless, I, as president, am obliged to say that we will take all measures to ensure that people’s savings do not suffer.”

*

Yeltsin’s TV appearance came only days before he is scheduled to hold a long-awaited summit with President Clinton in Moscow. The White House had hoped to focus discussion on the reduction of nuclear arms and the conflict in Serbia’s Kosovo province, but Russia’s economic troubles threaten to eclipse international issues.

Before the broadcast of the interview, Yeltsin met for 15 minutes with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to discuss preparations for the summit. Afterward, Talbott declined through a spokesman to discuss the condition of the president, who has been sidelined much of the past two years by heart and lung ailments.

Yeltsin’s government, facing the collapse of the ruble and the disintegration of the banking system, has begun resorting to methods of state control practiced in Soviet times.

*

Having temporarily banned trading in major currency markets, the government has set the value of its currency at an artificially high rate of less than 8 rubles to the dollar. At currency exchanges around Moscow, the ruble was trading at between 10 and 14 to the dollar Friday.

Uncertain what the ruble was actually worth, many stores that sell imported goods simply shut down to avoid ending up with stacks of rubles whose value would quickly evaporate. Others kept raising prices throughout the day to try to keep pace with what they estimated the ruble was worth.

With banks running out of funds and freezing payments to their clients, many companies were unable to carry out their business. And on city streets, depositors crowded outside bank branches hoping to withdraw funds from their savings accounts.

Many financial institutions were headed for bankruptcy, including insurance companies that invested heavily in high-interest, short-term treasury bonds that are now nearly worthless under a government plan to restructure its debts.

Some advocates of free enterprise worried that the collapse of the economy and the growing influence of Communists in the government could strengthen calls for the nationalization of certain sectors of the economy.

“It is clear that the pendulum of sentiments in the government has swung in a direction opposite from strengthening and supporting private ownership,” said Andrei A. Nechayev, a former economics minister and now co-chairman of the Russian Business Round Table. “Many people in Russia find such a trend rather scary.”

Yeltsin, himself a former top Communist Party official who has shifted his alliances more than once over the years, took away many of the Duma’s powers five years ago during a clash in which he ordered tanks to shell the parliament building.

Now, the power-sharing agreement under negotiation would attempt to restore the balance of power. The pact would grant the prime minister the power to name the Cabinet and give the Duma power to confirm the members--largely excluding the president from the all-important process of deciding who would run the government. The agreement also would bar the president from firing the prime minister and Cabinet for a year after their appointment.

Communist Duma Chairman Gennady N. Seleznyov and Yeltsin representative Alexander Kotenkov told reporters that there was broad agreement among the parties on the pact and economic policy and that a deal could be reached by Monday.

“Everyone understands that, as we are trying to get Russia out of crisis, the role of the government must be strengthened,” Seleznyov said.

If all sides agreed to the power-sharing plan, parliament would confirm Chernomyrdin as prime minister late next week.

An earlier version of the agreement would have granted Yeltsin immunity from prosecution and guaranteed the financial security of his family if he resigned from office. But it was unclear if this provision remained in the latest draft.

Sensing Yeltsin’s vulnerability, Communist Party leader Gennady A. Zyuganov has demanded more and more concessions from the president. He also suggested that the Kremlin was acting without Yeltsin’s involvement, claiming that the president had been too ill earlier this week to review the agreement.

“This document appeared yesterday,” Zyuganov said, referring to an early draft. “These were allegedly Yeltsin’s proposals. Well, I do not even believe these were his proposals because yesterday he was not even fit enough to read.”

Attempting to counter contentions that he was too sick to serve, Yeltsin came to the Kremlin from his country estate Friday morning and allowed television cameras to capture him greeting a string of officials.

“It is very difficult to remove me and, considering my character, it is practically impossible,” the president said during the interview, another segment of which will be broadcast Sunday night.

Asked what will happen with the prices of goods, Yeltsin responded, “I cannot say that prices will not rise, but as president I’m obligated to do everything to keep it to a minimum.

“The Central Bank and the government have orders,” he continued. “Everything is spelled out--what to do and how to do it, which direction to act in. Everything. We must strictly fulfill that which is written.”

* NOT SURPRISED

Emigres in Southland say the crisis was predictable. B1