CET ON-LINE 10-MAY-96

Friday, 10 May 1996

Volume 1, Issue 346

President Boris Yeltsin's hopes of uniting "democratic" forces

behind him in Russia's presidential election rose on Thursday

after Grigory Yavlinsky, a liberal rival, signalled a new

readiness to compromise. The two men met for two hours on

Sunday and on Wednesday Yavlinsky held out a lifeline for the

Kremlin leader, saying he wanted more talks on forming an

alliance to fight communist Gennady Zyuganov in the June 16

poll.

Although Yavlinsky set tough conditions which he accepted might

be hard for Yeltsin to meet, his urge to talk was a boost for

Yeltsin, whose aides are showing signs of nervousness. Some

aides have expressed concern about the way Yeltsin's campaign

is going and one even floated the idea of postponing the

election.

"The issue we are going to discuss would be a first in Russian

history - a political coalition between the government and

democratic opposition," Yavlinsky, 44, a liberal economist,

told the British Broadcasting Corporation in an interviw. "The

democratic opposition could form a coalition with Yeltsin in

order to prevent the victory of Mr Zyuganov."

Yavlinsky, who leads the liberal Yabloko movement and favours

rapid Western-style reforms, made clear that reaching a deal

with Yeltsin would be hard and his conditions of personnel and

policy changes were tough. He said Yeltsin must make personnel

changes which he did not spell out and must end the war in

Chechnya and make economic policy changes such as abandoning

state monopolies, easing restrictions on private property

ownership and encouraging more competition.

Any agreement must be announced openly, he said. Asked what his

terms were, he said: "If Yeltsin changes the people completely

and if Yeltsin takes a different way, preserving democracy and

private property, stopping the war, making real reform."

He hinted that Yeltsin had tried to offer him the post of prime

minister, which he is widely expected to seek if he enters any

alliance. "I said I'm not prepared to discuss this issue. He

tried to discuss it," Yavlinsky said.

Yavlinsky has frequently attacked Yeltsin, particularly over

the 17-month-old conflict in rebel Chechnya, and has said many

times in the past that he would not stand down in his favour.

But, with Yavlinsky trailing in third or fourth place in

opinion polls, and a long way behind Yeltsin and Zyuganov, he

may have decided the only way to prevent a communist comeback

is to throw in his lot with Yeltsin.

Efforts by Yavlinsky and two centrist rivals, ex-army general

Alexander Lebed and eye surgeon Svyatoslav Fyodorov, to unite

as a "Third Force," that could steal votes from both Yeltsin

and Zyuganov, has fallen in to disarray.

"The most realistic and best option for us is to go in to the

presidential election independently, in three columns,"

Russian news agencies quoted Fyodorov as saying on Wednesday.

Until then, Fyodorov had given the impression that an alliance

with Yavlinsky and Lebed was almost complete. For Yavlinsky,

joining forces with Yeltsin would be a radical change of

policy and would almost certainly mean he would withdraw his

candidacy at some stage.

Zyuganov was unruffled. He has seen the failure of many efforts

by the "democrats" to unite and knows there is no guarantee

Yavlinsky's supporters would agree to back Yeltsin. He

suggested uniting with Yeltsin would earn Yavlinsky mistrust.

"We regard an alliance between Boris Yeltsin and Grigory

Yavlinsky not as likely, but very likely. We foresaw this turn

of events," Zyuganov, 51, told Itar-Tass news agency. "The

writing would be on the wall for Grigory Yavlinsky's political

career...Trust in him would be zero," he said.