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Ruling Bars Yeltsin From Third Term

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<i> Associated Press</i>

Ending months of speculation, Russia’s highest court ruled Thursday that Boris N. Yeltsin cannot seek a third presidential term in 2000.

The ruling should encourage several top political leaders to accelerate their presidential campaign preparations.

The Russian Constitution puts a two-term limit on presidential tenure; Yeltsin, 67, is serving his second term.

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The president said he was satisfied with the ruling, and earlier had hinted he would not seek reelection. Yet he allowed aides to promote the idea of a third term until recent months, when speculation resumed about his fragile health and fitness to govern.

Yeltsin’s first term began in 1991, when Russia was a republic of the Soviet Union and before the current constitution was adopted in 1993.

Kremlin aides argued that term should not count toward the constitutional two-term limit. Yeltsin was reelected in 1996.

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