YELTSIN BACKS AWAY FROM FIRING KOZYREV.

Boris Yeltsin today retreated from yesterday’s threat to sack Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev. Yeltsin said that what the minister needed was a good deputy to handle paperwork. Referring to his comments on Thursday in which he said he was looking for a candidate to replace Kozyrev, Yeltsin said: "I was talking about strengthening personnel. Perhaps this affects not the minister, but the need to find a good deputy. Then the problem can be solved."

Nazarbayev Continues Personnel Purge.