
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 19, 1991                   TAG: 9102190496
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

YELTSIN DEMANDS GORBACHEV RESIGN

Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin today called for the immediate resignation of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, accusing him of "bringing the country to the edge of dictatorship."

The demand, made in a nationally televised appearance by Yeltsin, was the strongest and most public attack he has made on Gorbachev in months, and seemed likely to rekindle the crisis in Soviet domestic politics.

Yeltsin said his biggest mistake since becoming president of the Russian Federation parliament in May was placing too much trust in Gorbachev.

Yeltsin's call came two months after Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as foreign minister, saying he believed the Soviet Union was headed toward a dictatorship.

That resignation stunned the nation and raised fears among reformers of a return to hard-line communist rule.

by CNB