A move by the State Duma (lower house of parliament) to prevent an extension of President Yeltsin's term of office is almost certain to persuade Mr Yeltsin to run for a third term, according to Mr Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the pro-government think tank Socio-Politicial Foundation of Russia.
Mr Nikonov, a grandson of a former Soviet prime minister and foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, told The Irish Times that the Duma had acted foolishly in calling on the Constitutional Court to bar Mr Yeltsin from seeking a third term.
"The court is very likely to rule in favour of Boris Nikolayevich, and such a ruling would persuade him to run again," Mr Nikonov said.
Anti-Yeltsin politicians claim the President is already serving his second term, while pro-Yeltsin groups say he is in his first term as he was originally elected as president of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, a province of the old Soviet Union. A decision is expected later this year.
Mr Yeltsin, meantime, prompted by his young deputy prime ministers, Mr Anatoly Chubais and Mr Boris Nemtsov, signed an order dismissing the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Mr Boris Berezovsky.
Mr Berezovsky, a prominent industrialist and media tycoon, has used his TV stations and newspapers to attack Mr Chubais and Mr Nemtsov after another media magnate, Mr Vladimir Potanink, was declared the winner in bids for a large tranche of the Russian telecoms monopoly, Svyazinvest.
Accused of organising a number of murders by a former Security Council chief, Gen Alexander Lebed, Mr Berezovsky has been variously described as a financial genius by his friends and a latter day Rasputin by his enemies. His fall from grace is likely to reactivate a battle on TV and in the newspapers which ended only when Mr Yeltsin assured them that he would personally oversee the next series of auctions of state industries.
The oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft and three international airports are due to be privatised shortly along with another tranche of Svyazinvest.
The former Soviet president, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, was admitted to hospital in Switzerland yesterday for tests on allergies which have affected his skin. A hospital spokesman said intensive tests would be done to discover the cause of the allergies.
