Russia Yeltsin

President Boris N. Yeltsin has a dream: One day stores here will be filled with Russian goods, and Russians will want to buy them. After decades of empty Soviet shops, the markets of Moscow are overflowing with a huge variety of goods, from pasta and jogging shoes to compact discs and cellular phones. But to the president's dismay, the vast majority of consumer goods sold in Russia come from abroad.

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 canceled a planned meeting with U.S. Vice President Al Gore and has gone on vacation for two weeks, a presidential spokesman said. Another aide said Yeltsin will spend his holiday in a sanatorium near Moscow to "restore his health." Yeltsin, 65, has not made any public appearances since shortly after the June 16 first round of the presidential election, although he has been shown several times on television. The cancellation of the meeting with Gore clearly caught U.S.

The ruble shed 38% of its value in a renewed downward slide Wednesday amid fears that Russia's new government plans to print money--and probably provoke still-higher inflation--in an attempt to get out of economic crisis. But President Boris N. Yeltsin told German Chancellor Helmut Kohl by phone that Russia, in crisis since a de facto devaluation of the currency in mid-August, is now "normalizing."

President Boris N. Yeltsin will deal with the current political crisis as firmly as he resisted the 1991 hard-line Communist coup, his spokesman said. The Congress of People's Deputies has sharply curbed Yeltsin's authority and canceled his plan for a nationwide referendum on whether the president or Parliament should have supreme power. A group of 57 pro-Yeltsin deputies asked Russia's Constitutional Court to overrule Congress' actions, contending that it overstepped its authority.

Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin, locked in a potentially explosive dispute with Ukraine over control of the Black Sea Fleet, put his foot down on Thursday, declaring that the fleet "was, is, and will remain Russia's." But Ukraine continued to assert its right to the 400-vessel fleet on its southern shores. President Leonid M. Kravchuk argued that Ukraine, as an independent nation, "has a right to its own armed forces" and that Ukrainians pay for most of the fleet's upkeep.

The latest terrorist action by fanatical Chechen rebels in Dagestan and the violent, if inept, reaction to it by the Kremlin have re-energized the debate over President Boris N. Yeltsin's political future and the prospects for Russia's reforms. Yeltsin's prompt decision to shoot first and ask questions later has produced a storm of criticism along the Russian political spectrum, with ultranationalist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky the lone voice of support for the president.

President Boris N. Yeltsin's health has improved since he suffered a mild heart attack last week, but his doctors say he should spend at least three weeks in the hospital, then two weeks in a sanatorium, the Itar-Tass news agency said. Seeking to ease fears over the 64-year-old Kremlin leader's health, Naina Yeltsin said her husband is on the mend and Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin said the president is making all major national decisions.

Having scored an impressive first-round victory in Russia's elections on Wednesday, President-elect Boris Yeltsin is poised to relaunch his challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev.

The ruble shed 38% of its value in a renewed downward slide Wednesday amid fears that Russia's new government plans to print money--and probably provoke still-higher inflation--in an attempt to get out of economic crisis. But President Boris N. Yeltsin told German Chancellor Helmut Kohl by phone that Russia, in crisis since a de facto devaluation of the currency in mid-August, is now "normalizing."

Monday's devaluation of the Russian ruble and the temporary debt default was inevitable but not a long-term solution. The problem is a fundamentally flawed economic reform that Boris Yeltsin has kept afloat with a financial pyramid game. It has now collapsed. It would be a mistake to provide a huge Western bailout unless the reform strategy, which the West has forced on Russia, is fundamentally changed. We should not forget how few expected this collapse a month ago.

Boris Yeltsin's warning that U.S. actions in Iraq could lead to a world war has left analysts groping for an explanation for the Russian president's astounding comment. It's not easy understanding Yeltsin. Some of his public statements are baffling. Remember his shocking declaration in Stockholm, when he promised arms reductions that were not part of any agreement or even a topic for negotiation?

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin pared the portfolios of his two top reformers Thursday to appease opposition critics who have been stirring up a storm over a top-level bribery scandal and have been holding vital tax and budget laws hostage to their demands. But the moves are unlikely to put an end to the political bloodletting that has already cost four other senior members of the Kremlin reform team their jobs. Yeltsin stripped Anatoly B.

Anatoly B. Chubais has held many job titles in President Boris N. Yeltsin's Kremlin, and none has ever reflected the real extent of his power as the chief architect and engineer of Russia's historic economic transition. But with his recent admission of impropriety in accepting a $90,000 book advance many here consider an ill-disguised bribe, Chubais may have lost more this time than his latest title.

President Boris N. Yeltsin has a dream: One day stores here will be filled with Russian goods, and Russians will want to buy them. After decades of empty Soviet shops, the markets of Moscow are overflowing with a huge variety of goods, from pasta and jogging shoes to compact discs and cellular phones. But to the president's dismay, the vast majority of consumer goods sold in Russia come from abroad.

With a masterful maneuver that promises to save face in the Kremlin and human life in Chechnya, Russian security chief Alexander I. Lebed on Saturday irrevocably hitched his political future to the fate of peace in the separatist southern republic. Although skeptics warn that Lebed may have set himself up for a clash with nationalist opponents and even with President Boris N.

President Boris N. Yeltsin canceled a planned meeting with U.S. Vice President Al Gore and has gone on vacation for two weeks, a presidential spokesman said. Another aide said Yeltsin will spend his holiday in a sanatorium near Moscow to "restore his health." Yeltsin, 65, has not made any public appearances since shortly after the June 16 first round of the presidential election, although he has been shown several times on television. The cancellation of the meeting with Gore clearly caught U.S.

In a drive to seize the initiative from his Communist opponent, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin joined the leaders of three other former Soviet republics Friday in a pact to strengthen integration between states that broke apart five years ago. While the move may be more symbolic than significant, it was clearly aimed at appeasing Russian voters nostalgic for the lost superpower status of the Soviet Union and usurping a campaign theme of Communist Party presidential challenger Gennady A.