Ruling Bars Yeltsin From Third Term
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.
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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