RUSSIAN deputies rejected a draft resolution on impeachment of President Yeltsin yesterday, but concern about his health was not dispelled by his surprise visit to the Kremlin.
Deputies in the lower house, the State Duma, voted 102 to 87 against adopting the entire text of a draft resolution proposed by a communist deputy, Mr Viktor Ilyukhin, which called for Mr Yeltsin's impeachment on grounds of ill-health.
However, 229 deputies voted to use the text as a basis for further debate, with a final vote due next month 63 voted against.
"So far the Duma has not taken a final decision," the chairman of the constitutional court, Judge Vladimir Tumanov, said.
Less than two days after leaving hospital, Mr Yeltsin (65) unexpectedly spent three hours in the Kremlin yesterday in a move calculated to deflate the parliamentary debate.
Mr Ilyukhin denied that the Duma vote was a defeat, saying: "We already have the result - we have forced the power structures and Presidency to talk about the situation.
Another communist deputy, Mr Vladimir Semago, said the text was not adopted "because we decided to visit the regions to find out what voters think about this issue".
He said the opposition battle against Mr Yeltsin was now passing from individuals such as the presidential hopeful and former national security chief, Gen Alexander Lebed, to "a general political struggle".
The Duma is dominated by the communist and nationalist opposition, while the upper house, the Federation Council, is more pro Yeltsin.
The opposition move was largely symbolic, since only last week Duma legal experts concluded that deputies did not have the authority to remove the head of state on grounds of ill health.
Russia's presidential constitution, drawn up by Mr Yeltsin himself, makes impeachment extremely difficult, specifying that such proceedings can only be opened in the case of treason or another serious crime".
The speaker of the Federation Council, Mr Yegor Stroyev, told Russian independent television, NTV, that even if the Duma had adopted the resolution it would have been anti constitutional and would have had no legal consequences.
Mr Yeltsin held talks in the Kremlin yesterday with the Prime. Minister, Mr Viktor Chemomyrdin, in their first working meeting since Mr Yeltsin was taken to hospital on January 8th suffering from double pneumonia, a Kremlin spokesman said.
The Kremlin talks focused on preparations for a meeting next month between Mr Chernomyrdin and the US VicePresident, Mr Al Gore, the elections in Chechnya next Monday, a CIS summit meeting at the end of the month and federal budget debts.
When the Duma debate opened, pro government deputies belonging to the Our Home Is Russia faction left the chamber.
Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the democratic reformist Yabloko faction, said the debate was a "provocation" by Mr Ilyukhin aimed at "ridiculing the Duma".
The Communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, the runner up in the elections, said it would be "good if Yeltsin came to the Duma to convince deputies that he is healthy".
Mr Zyuganov has demanded the appointment of an independent medical commission to report on the President's health.