Yeltsin Presses Onward

MOSCOW: As the Russian presidential campaign enters the home stretch, President Boris Yeltsin is stepping up his reelection effort. Wednesday brought a plan to end the 17-month conflict in Chechnya along with praise and promises of more financial backing for the Russian army. Yeltsin proposes a Chechen republic still under Russian dominion, but with control over its own natural resources and finances. "The Chechens probably won't like this first proposal," reports TIME Moscow correspondent Sally Donnelly, "since they have been fighting all this time to establish an independent republic. But at least the Russians are starting to talk. They are thinking about how to deal with the problem, offering concrete proposals. This trial balloon may keep the Chechens negotiating until the elections, which is what the Russians really want right now, anyway." Donnelly attributes Yeltsin's fresh burst of campaigning and election promises to the fact that he is getting more information now than he has in a long time. "The information reaching Yeltsin has been pretty restricted for the last couple of years," says Donnelly "There's been a tight circle of 'court jesters' around the President, all competing for access to him, and willing to say anything to make the boss happy. There was nothing to counterbalance them, no career civil servants whose jobs don't depend on presidential good will." Still, Yeltsin's endstage campaigning may come too late to overcome a backlash of resentment against him by a population that for has the most part seen little improvement in their lives since the collapse of the communist state. TN