ON the Richter scale of Russian political scandals, the case of Mr Yuri Skuratov has pushed the needle towards force 10. Mr Skuratov, the country's prosecutor-general, resigned six weeks ago for "health reasons". On Wednesday afternoon, the Russian Senate voted overwhelmingly to reinstate him. Late on Wednesday night, the state TV channel showed a still clip from video footage that claimed to show the prosecutor in compromising positions with two young prostitutes.
Russian politics has a long tradition of using material known as kompromat in political in-fighting, and though Mr Skuratov was targeted as the latest victim, the one who has come out worst from the affair is Mr Yeltsin.
There's much more to the Skuratov case than sex, lies and videotape. Mr Yeltsin's dwindling credibility has been further diminished and Mr Skuratov, whose job has given him access to information on the criminal activities of numerous important figures, has strongly hinted that he is going to name names. He pledged to continue investigations into insider trading in government securities during the financial crisis of August 1998 and into corruption in Russia's central bank.
He also said he would investigate the infamous video clip itself, describing it as an "egregious violation of the law".
Initially, Mr Yeltsin accepted Mr Skuratov's resignation with almost undue haste. This was interpreted as showing that the president and his friends had something to hide.
The vote in the Federation Council (Senate) on Wednesday, however, caught Mr Yeltsin by surprise. The upper house, unlike the State Duma, has long been regarded as a rubber stamp for Mr Yeltsin's decrees and policies and the fact that it turned so quickly and so decisively against Mr Yeltsin has almost completely isolated him on the political scene.
More than ever, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, Russia is effectively taking on the form of a parliamentary rather than a presidential republic. Yesterday morning, Mr Yeltsin summoned Mr Primakov and Mr Skuratov for a meeting at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow where he was recovering from what his aides have described as a bleeding ulcer.
In a joint statement after the meeting, the president and the prime minister appeared to criticise Mr Skuratov, saying "moral unscrupulousness and scheming" were incompatible with the "high post of prosecutor-general".
Mr Yeltsin then announced he was leaving hospital, but even this move, designed to show he had regained his physical strength, cut no ice with politicians.
Members of the State Duma then viewed the controversial videotape and deputies pronounced themselves unimpressed. Rumours of the tape's existence had been circulating for weeks and after Mr Skuratov's reinstatement the independent radio station Ekho Moskvy claimed the sound effects accompanying the video were those of Mr Skuratov having sex with his wife.
The Duma is due to begin impeachment proceedings against Mr Yeltsin on April 15th. Once impeachment is before the house, the president loses his constitutional right to dissolve parliament and leaves himself open to even fiercer criticism from both houses. The events of the last two days have left Mr Yeltsin even more vulnerable to political attack from his parliamentary opponents.
Later yesterday, in an apparently unconnected but ironic development, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexiy of Moscow and All Russia, gave a radio broadcast condemning Russian television stations for showing too much sex. Television stations appeared to be promoting sexual perversions, violence and drug use, the Patriarch said.
