Russia's courts shut the door yesterday on President Boris Yeltsin's right to re-election.
The Constitutional Court, after deliberating for three weeks, ruled that Mr Yeltsin was serving his second term as president of Russia. The seemingly-indisputable finding closes the last potential opening the Kremlin could have used to put up Mr Yeltsin's candidacy for a third term in 2000.
"Both before and after the last election, voters all knew that the given candidate was running for a second term," declared the Constitutional Court chairman, Mr Marat Baglai. "It is absolutely clear that a new person will become president."
Mr Yeltsin won his first term as president in 1991. Russia was then a Soviet republic and its 1993 constitution limiting presidents to two successive terms in office had not yet been written. Kremlin legal aides thus argued that Mr Yeltsin was elected president of an independent Russia only once - in 1996.
Mr Yeltsin's court representative reacted calmly to the verdict, saying that the president had already personally ruled out seeking re-election.
The Russian Deputy Prime Minister Mr Gennady Kulik meanwhile announced that the United States has extended a $600 million loan to Russia for the purchase of 1.5 million tonnes of food, according to Interfax. The 20-year loan, extended at a two per cent annual interest rate with a five-year grace period, will go towards the purchase of US dry milk, wheat, meat and beans, the news agency reported.
The United States has also agreed to issue 1.5 million tonnes of wheat at no cost to Russia.
Washington will send a total of 3.1 million tonnes of food under an agreement reached yesterday.