THE dismissal of seven generals and a partial pull out of troops in Chechnya by September have given President Yeltsin a huge publicity boost over his communist rival, Mr Gennady Zyuganov.
As the Russian election campaign entered its final week Mr Zyuganov, in his second Moscow press conference in two days, expressed confidence that he would win next Wednesday's poll. But his words paled in comparison with the newsworthiness of Mr Yeltsin's deeds the sacking of the generals all but obliterated Mr Zyuganov from the major TV bulletins.
All seven generals were close associates of the former defence minister, Gen Pavel Grachev, who has retreated to his dacha outside Moscow after his sacking last week.
The new national security adviser, Gen Alexander Lebed, was behind the latest purge just as he was involved in the dismissal of the First Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Oleg Soskovets, the Security Services chief, Gen Mikhail Barsukov, and the head of the presidential bodyguard, Gen Alexander Korzhakov, last Thursday.
Eleven heads have rolled since Gen Lebed moved into his new post four of the seven to lose office yesterday had been named by Gen Lebed as being involved in a plot to keep Gen Grachev in power.
Four men from outside the "Grachev entourage" are now in the running for the crucial post of defence minister. Gen Igor Rodionov is head of the General Staff College, Gen Vladimir Semyonov is commander of ground forces, Gen Andrei Nikolayev is a linguist who commands the country's border guards and Gen Konstantin Kobets is military adviser to the Russian government.
While Gen Rodionov has been tipped as favourite, The Irish Times has been informed that the appointment of Gen Kobets would also satisfy Gen Lebed's desire to clean up the top ranks of the Russian armed forces following his discussions with senior officers over the past two days.
While all this military bloodletting has been going on, Mr Zyuganov has been striving to have his voice heard by media which show far more interest in the juicier news of military and political purges.
His call for a coalition government has fallen on deaf ears, and one of the men he suggested as part of that scenario, the popular mayor of Moscow, Mr Yuri Luzhkov, announced that he would serve in such a government only under the presidency of Mr Yeltsin.
But Mr Zyuganov is still convinced he can win. He claimed that voters were now tired of the constant barrage of pro-Yeltsin coverage churned out daily by the three main TV channels, two of which are state controlled while the director general of the third is a member of Mr Yeltsin's campaign team.
Observers from the OSCE and the US Republican party have expressed concern at the biased nature of media coverage but have agreed that the actual voting and counting process have been free and fair. Mr Zyuganov is now 21 percentage points behind Mr Yeltsin in the highly unreliable Russian opinion polls.
