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

DATE: SUNDAY, March 28, 1993                   TAG: 9303280089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Medium

YELTSIN ASKS FOES FOR TALKS

President Boris Yeltsin, visibly exhausted and stumbling over some words, appealed to his opponents in the Russian Congress for compromise Saturday as they began considering a measure that would censure him and reduce his powers.

The Congress turned aside two efforts by hard-liners earlier in the day to impeach Yeltsin, with most lawmakers clearly fearful of such a drastic step against the country's first democratically elected leader.

Other possible sanctions were left unresolved when the Congress adjourned in disarray after Yeltsin's surprise reappearance.

The lawmakers were scheduled to meet again today, with possibilities for compromise still under consideration. But few were predicting a fast or easy resolution of Russia's debilitating power struggle between the reformist Yeltsin and his parliamentary opponents.

In his speech Saturday, the Russian leader said it was time to "calm down" the political situation and "get down to normal work." He called for a one-week freeze on all further debate while he, parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin try to end the power struggle.

Yeltsin's haggard state and laborious speech clearly shocked lawmakers and led some of his opponents to charge he was ill or drunk. But minutes later, as he strode through a hallway of reporters and television cameras, he seemed in command, shaking hands and speaking off the cuff.

He acknowledged then, and in a radio interview about 10 minutes later, that the week's events - the death of his mother and demands for his ouster - had left him exhausted and emotionally drained.

Yeltsin's opponents quickly seized on Yeltsin's tired appearance and rambling plea for compromise to again push for his ouster.

"This evening's surprises give me reason to think that the Congress may still end up with impeachment," said a delighted Sergei Baburin, a hard-line legislator who earlier in the day was visibly angry when the Congress refused to put impeachment on the day's agenda.

Even some of Yeltsin's backers suggested the president had hurt himself by his appearance. "It would have been better for him not to have spoken," said Yevgeny Ambartsumov, head of the legislature's foreign affairs committee.

On March 20, Yeltsin declared he was taking "special powers" to rule by decree to end a debilitating power struggle with the conservative, anti-reform parliament. He said a referendum would be held April 25 in which voters would be asked to back a new constitution and to express confidence in him.

Yeltsin has not attempted to impose special powers.

by CNB