WITH just six weeks to go before President Boris Yeltsin is due to face the Russian electorate, pressure is increasing within his own camp and elsewhere to have the presidential elections postponed for fear of a Communist victory.
The latest and clearest indication of panic in Mr Yeltsin's camp has come from his closest confidant, (the former KGB) Gen Alexander Korzhakov, who told the Observer newspaper he wants the vote called off.
Earlier a poll by the independent Institute for the Sociology of Parliamentarianism conducted with 6,000 respondents throughout Russia, had forecast Mr Yeltsin would lose by 21 percentage points to the Communist candidate, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, and a private opinion sounding for the Kremlin is reported to have come up with similar results.
A leading Yeltsin aide, Mr Viktor Ilyushin, announced he was "dissatisfied" with Mr Yeltsin's campaign and the former prime minister, Mr Yegor Gaidar, who also supports Mr Yell sin, told The Irish Times "Yeltsin has a chance of victory. I wouldn't put it any stronger than that."
Mr Yeltsin and Mr Zyuganov are due to meet for discussions in the near future but hopes that the two leading candidates might come to an agreement to call off the elections appear unlikely following a statement by Mr Zyuganov to his party's newspaper Pravda in which he accused the president of preparing to "take away the right of citizens to correct the situation through the ballot box".
Last week the nationalist Gen Alexander Lebed had a meeting with Mr Yeltsin in the Kremlin and emerged to state that any attempts to postpone the elections would lead to trouble.
Yesterday Mr Yeltsin met the leading democratic candidate, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, amid speculation that Mr Yavlinsky would be offered the post of prime minister if he dropped out of the presidential race.
Gen Korzhakov is the most shadowy and sinister member of a group of shadowy and sinister people Mr Yeltsin has gathered round himself in the latter years of his presidency; men who have everything to lose should Mr Yeltsin fail in his re election bid.
Gen Korzhakov worked his way up through KGB ranks to become head of the presidential bodyguard and has consistently been reported to be the man with greatest influence in the Kremlin.
Earlier this year senior US intelligence sources quoted in the Boston Globe named Gen Korzhakov as the head of a group code named "Felix", after Felix Dzerzhinsky who founded the KGB's forerunner, which was planning either to cancel the elections or, if held, to falsify their results.
The sources from more than one US agency claimed that a "dry run" for rigging the vote had taken place in the elections for the State Duma (Lower House of Parliament) last December when Gen Lebed's party and that of Mr Gaidar were prevented from reaching the 5 per cent necessary for representation. Both groups ended up with about 4.9 per cent of the vote.
Pressure from big business to cancel the presidential poll came last week in a letter published by the business newspaper Kommersant Daily and signed by 13 industrialists and bankers allied mainly to the old Soviet military industrial complex. The letter, initiated by Mr Boris Berezovsky of the LogoVAZ automotive complex, contained an appeal for unity between Mr Yeltsin and Mr Zyuganov and an explicit threat that "Russian entrepreneurs have the necessary resources and the will to influence too unprincipled and uncompromising candidates". It did not specify precisely what "resources" were meant but it, is well known that many Russian entrepreneurs have access not only to large sums of money but have also exercised power in a decidedly physical manner.
Mr Berezovsky has reportedly boasted of his close contacts with Gen Korzhakov. He was taken in for questioning following the murder of a media personality, Vladimir Listyev, in March of last year and then released.
The Observer yesterday quoted a well known political analyst, Mr Boris Piontovsky, as saying that Mr Berezovsky had openly boasted that he had been freed following a phone call from Gen Korzhakov in the Kremlin.
Up to two weeks ago, Mr Yeltsin's ratings had been rising in the opinion polls to the extent that he had begun to mount a serious challenge to Mr Zyuganov but after his failed peace initiative in Chechnya the polls swung strongly towards Mr Zyuganov.
Mr Yeltsin's statement at the weekend that he is planning to visit Chechnya in an attempt to hold peace talks, and his statement that a Communist victory would lead to civil war, are further indications that, the Yeltsin camp feels the campaign is running out of steam.
In the meantime the war in Chechnya continues with Russian troops forcing villages to sign "peace agreements" and rebels continuing their hit and run military campaigns. Yesterday they shot down a Sukhoi 25 jet fighter killing its crew.
. Mr Yeltsin has closed the gap on Mr Zyuganov, according to the latest polls. Two polls made public yesterday showed Mr Yeltsin ahead or running neck and neck with Mr Zyuganov.
A poll by the Ramir agency part of the Gallup group, said Mr Yeltsin and Mr Zyuganov both had the support of 28 per cent of those who had already decided to vote, XTV commercial television reported. The other poll, conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, put Mr Yeltsin at 26.5 per cent and 25.2 per cent for Mr Zyuganov.
