YELTSIN FED MISLEADING INFORMATION.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 2 Issue: 83

In an unusually frank interview, Yeltsin’s chief aide Viktor Ilyushin has expressed dissatisfaction with the way the campaign to reelect the president is being organized and admitted that some of Yeltsin’s entourage have been feeding him false information. Ilyushin told the Interfax news agency he was concerned that bureaucratic infighting between members of the Yeltsin team was hindering the campaign effort. "Much remains to be done to point the campaign in the right direction," he said. Ilyushin indicated that he had got a nasty shock during the three days he recently spent in the Khabarovsk and Maritime regions of Russia’s Far East, where Communist and nationalist support is strong. "The trip was very difficult. Many moments were unpleasant for me," he said.

Ilyushin also said he was disturbed by the fact that members of Yeltsin’s inner circle sometimes feed the president misleading information, aimed at making him believe his standing in the polls is higher than it really is. (Interfax, Reuters, April 28) Last week, the nationalist newspaper Den, which is often well informed, said that the only part of Yeltsin’s campaign team that works efficiently is that organized by Anatoly Chubais, which oversees campaign subscriptions.

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