YELTSIN MAKES ANOTHER OVERTURE TO YAVLINSKY.

Yeltsin sought over the weekend to compensate for his failure to meet personally with Yavlinsky by giving an interview June 30 to the Interfax news agency. But the way the interview was handled (in the heavy-handed tradition of Soviet propagandists) only heightened suspicions that Yeltsin was seriously ill. At first, Interfax did not tell its subscribers that the interview was not given in person, and admitted only on later questioning that it had received written replies to previously submitted questions. (Financial Times, July 1) In the interview, Yeltsin said he highly esteemed Yavlinsky’s professionalism and that he viewed the liberal economist as "an ally." Yavlinsky’s reaction to this overture is not yet known but Yeltsin’s aide Georgy Satarov expressed his personal doubts that a Yeltsin/Yavlinsky deal would be struck. (Interfax, June 29 and 30)

Lebed Says He Wants to be Vice-President…