YELTSIN RETURNS TO WORK IN THE KREMLIN; HE AND CHUBAIS UNDER ATTACK.

President Boris Yeltsin returned to the Kremlin this morning, days earlier than expected after a bout of pneumonia. (AP, BBC, Itar-Tass, January 22) Russian news agencies said he was meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Yeltsin is clearly determined to head off charges that ill health has left him unfit to govern the country.

Yeltsin’s return coincided with this morning’s debate by the Russian Duma of a bill drafted by Communist deputy Viktor Ilyukhin and designed to force the president’s dismissal on medical grounds. The "Russia is Our Home" and Yabloko parliamentary factions voted against the item ‘s inclusion on the agenda, but it was supported by Communist deputies and by members of Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s faction. Deputies representing "Russia is Our Home" walked out of the chamber when the debate began. (ITAR-TASS, January 22)

Ilyukhin has also launched an attack on Yeltsin’s chief-of-staff, Anatoli Chubais. Ilyukhin said he would present the Duma with evidence that Chubais had broken laws barring officials from earning money privately. Last week, Chubais strongly denied related allegations that he had defaulted on income tax payments. But Ilyukhin said he could prove that Chubais received undeclared dollar payments both while he was running Yeltsin’s reelection campaign last year and after he was appointed to run the Kremlin administration in July. (ORT, Reuters, January 21)

Negotiations on Revising the CFE Treaty Begin.