Boris N Yeltsin

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin firmly backed Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin as his successor Sunday, effectively endorsing the relentless war against the separatist republic of Chechnya and signaling that the Kremlin has no intention of bowing to Western criticism of the conflict. Dwarfing the dour, diminutive prime minister, Yeltsin clasped him by the arm as the two emerged from an hourlong meeting and said he is increasingly confident that Putin is the right man to lead Russia.

Chief Prosecutor Yuri I. Skuratov, struggling to save his job, contended that he was being dumped in order to keep him from pursuing corruption allegations against Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and his family. The upper house of parliament voted to keep him in the post for now. The 52-98 vote to dismiss him was the third time the Federation Council has voted against dismissing Skuratov. His case is also being examined by the Constitutional Court.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin checked out of the hospital after a two-night stay for treatment of the flu and returned to his country house to recuperate, Kremlin officials said. Yeltsin was taken to the Central Kremlin Hospital on Saturday suffering from a high fever and the flu. Shortly after he was admitted, his temperature began to drop, presidential spokesman Dmitri D. Yakushkin said. Russian television showed a smiling Yeltsin, 68, chatting with Yakushkin upon leaving the hospital.

President Boris N. Yeltsin received hospital treatment for the flu, and his temperature was returning to normal, the Kremlin said. Spokesman Dmitri D. Yakushkin did not provide details on the treatment or say when the president, who was hospitalized Saturday, might be released, according to the Interfax news agency. Yeltsin met with his chief of staff, Alexander S. Voloshin, at the hospital, Yakushkin said. The president did not give any additional powers to Prime Minister Vladimir V.

As Russia continued to wage war in the separatist republic of Chechnya, President Boris N. Yeltsin abruptly checked into the Central Kremlin Hospital with a high temperature and the flu Saturday, a day after a sudden announcement that he was to take a vacation. Although he had reportedly been working in the Kremlin, the 68-year-old Yeltsin disappeared from public view about two weeks ago, and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin moved briskly into the vacuum.

For more than a decade, Tatyana Dyachenko worked at the famous Salyut design bureau, plotting trajectories for the communications satellites and the Mir space station. In 1994, she took a post at an obscure bank that specialized in trading in gems and precious metals. But these jobs were merely preparation for her true calling: helping her father govern Russia. Today, the reclusive 39-year-old mathematician is widely viewed as the power behind the Kremlin throne.

The chairman of the Bank of New York stirred the ongoing controversy over alleged Russian money laundering Wednesday, acknowledging to a congressional committee that two accounts reportedly linked to the son-in-law of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin "do exist at the Bank of New York." The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that investigators are looking into two accounts at the bank's Cayman Islands branch that are connected to the son-in-law, Leonid Dyachenko.

Russia confronted the prospect of a long and unpredictable campaign of terror Thursday, as a fifth bombing in just over two weeks highlighted the country's vulnerability to violent attacks. The wave of terrorist bombings in Moscow and the nation's south is unprecedented in peacetime Russia. Nearly 300 people have died in the blasts, which have undermined confidence in the ability of security forces to stop the violence.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin telephoned President Clinton to deny involvement in corruption and to complain that people with "political motivations" in both Russia and the United States were exploiting a widening financial scandal to damage the relationship between the two countries, White House officials said. Yeltsin offered to help the U.S. in its probe of alleged Russian money laundering, the officials added.

President Boris N. Yeltsin cracked the whip in Moscow on Tuesday after Russia's generals were caught off guard by a new Islamic rebel onslaught in the southern republic of Dagestan. Chairing a meeting of his Security Council, Yeltsin described the rebels in Dagestan as degenerates and murderers and told his generals to crush them. Earlier, he had lashed out at the generals themselves for being unprepared for a devastating car bomb attack and a major new rebel advance over the weekend.