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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 29, 1993                   TAG: 9309290060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

YELTSIN RINGS PARLIAMENT WITH THOUSANDS OF TROOPS

President Boris Yeltsin tried to break the nerve of defiant hard-line lawmakers Tuesday, surrounding the Russian parliament with thousands of riot police and troops in his biggest show of force yet.

Trucks and barbed wire blocked roads leading to the parliament building.

Senior Interior Ministry officials barked through loudspeakers, ordering the lawmakers and their supporters to surrender their weapons and leave the building by Wednesday.

But top presidential aides later backed off the 24-hour deadline and said Yeltsin had no intention of using force.

Special red-beret paratroopers armed with machine guns were moved in late Tuesday night around the perimeter of the parliament, but riot police commanders said there was no unusual activity in the area early this morning.

Earlier, the ultimatum triggered a protest by about 3,000 hard-line demonstrators, some of whom tried to break through police lines then march near parliament, beating on cars, throwing rocks at riot police and building a barricade across a main street.

Shouting "Shame!" and "Death to Yeltsin!," the protesters marched past the U.S. Embassy, stopping at an underpass where three young men died during the August 1991 hard-line coup attempt.

Hundreds of police in full riot gear and armed with shields dispersed the crowd.

At least two people were arrested, and several people had minor injuries.

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by CNB