CAMPAIGNING for the second round of Russia's presidential elections got under way with President Yeltsin striking a distinctly nationalist tone during a visit to the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. Meanwhile, his rival, the communist candidate Mr Gennady Zyuganov, prepared to home in on last week's sacking of three leading Yeltsin aides, portraying the affair as simply an internal struggle over money.
The most surprising development, however, came when Mr Yeltsin vetoed a parliamentary bill regulating the transfer of power in the event of his losing the election. For logistical reasons no rules will now be in place by the time voters go to the polls on July 3rd.
Mr Yeltsin gave no reason for his veto but it is understood he objected to a clause which would have allowed future presidents to be sworn in in cities other than Moscow. Even some Yeltsin supporters found the decision hard to understand. "It seemed a good enough law to me and I don't know what he objects to. But in the end I don't think it will make much difference," said parliamentarian Mr Vladimir Lysenko.
In Kaliningrad yesterday Mr Yeltsin declared the enclave to be true Russian soil and launched an attack on the Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia for their treatment of ethnic Russians.
On Saturday on a visit to the Belarussian city of Brest, Mr Yeltsin once again strongly attacked plans for the eastward expansion of Nato, saying: "Its advance to the frontiers of the community of Russia and Belarus is alarming our peoples. They do not want a new confrontation, a new line of division on the continent."
The nationalist tone of Mr Yeltsin's second round campaign seems aimed at stealing Mr Zyuganov's clothes as the true representative of Russian nationalism, thus taking some of the steam out of the Communist Party's campaign.
Mr Yeltsin's prospects got a mild boost at the weekend when the Yabloko party of Mr Grigory Yavlinsky gave him reluctant support for the second round. Mr Yavlinsky, a liberal economist, held a party congress behind closed doors in Moscow where most of the delegates gave conditional support to Mr Yeltsin as president, provided his powers were curtailed.
