RUSSIA'S presidential elections tuned into a dirty fight yesterday as official campaigning for the second round got under way and Communist supporters accused supporters of President Yeltsin of using $500,000 (£322,580) from state funds to help finance his campaign.
A week ago the money was at the centre of a political storm. The arrest of two men carrying the cash in a box from the Moscow White House ended with the sacking of the first deputy prime minister, Mr Oleg Soskovets, the end of the Federal Security Service, Gen Mikhail Barsukov, and the chief of the 30,000 strong presidential bodyguard, Gen Alexander Korzhakov.
Yesterday the Communist chairman of the security committee of the State Duma, Mr Viktor Ilyukhin, showed a videotaped interview with Mr Boris Lavrov of the National Reserve Bank.
In it Mr Lavrov, who alleged he was paid over $30,000 by the deputy Finance Minister, Mr German Kuznetsov, to organise the transfer of the £500,000 from the finance ministry to Mr Yeltsin's campaign workers, a rock concert impresario, Mr Sergei Lisovsky, and Mr Arkady Yevstafiev, who had formerly worked on privatisation of state companies.
The video cassette was obtained, according to Mr llyukhin from police sources who had interviewed Mr Lavrov after he and the other men were arrested when attempting to leave the White House with the money. A former privatisation minister and proYeltsin campaigner, Mr Anatoly Chubais, insists that the money was planted by the security services.
Further allegations of sharp practice came from the former Soviet president, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, who said that the first round campaign of Gen Alexander Lebed was tended to the extent of millions of dollars" from the Yeltsin camp.
Gen Lebed, who has since become Mr Yeltsin's national security adviser, was, Mr Gorbachev said, a "Trojan horse" who prevented two liberal candidates, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky and Mr Svyatoslav Fyodorov, from joining forces in a democratic anti-Yeltsin alliance.
Mr Yavlinsky is expected to have talks at the weekend with Mr Yeltsin, who yesterday announced that further changes in the government were likely before voters go to the polls on July 3rd.
The second round TV campaign opened yesterday with both candidates getting 10 minutes free time daily, spread out over the two state controlled channels and the commercial station NTV, whose director general is a media adviser to Mr Yeltsin.
Mr Yeltsin's advertisement showed Mr Konstantin Raikin, son of the late Arkady Raikin, one of Russia's best loved comedians, saying he was sure that, if his father were alive he would be a Yeltsin supporter against the 70 years of fear, slavery and violence under Communism.
Mr Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist leader, in his first free spot, attacked Mr Yeltsin for refusing a head to head debate before the poll and he also criticised the TV channels for bias towards the President: "We wake up with Mr Yeltsin and we go to bed with Mr Yeltsin," he said using the term "Gospodin Yeltsin" which has antisoviet connotations.
The former vice president, Mr Alexander Rutskoy, also took part in the Communist advertisement, criticising Gen Lebed for joining Mr Yeltsin's team. He has made a mistake," Mr Rutskoy said. "The same thing will happen to him that happened to me. He will be thrown out of the Kremlin."
Reuter adds: Russians in the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia will vote, in the second round of the elections on June 30th, three days before the main voting takes in Russia, embassies said yesterday.
