PRESIDENT Yeltsin yesterday rejected opposition demands for constitutional changes to water down his powers and a new attempt by his opponents to remove him flopped.
Mr Yeltsin (66), in his first radio address since he fell ill with pneumonia last month, rebuffed attempts to amend the constitution to reduce his powers or remove him for health reasons.
"The constitution is the pivot of the new Russian statehood," Mr Yeltsin declared, speaking clearly but slowly in a hoarse voice. "It is premature today to subject the new structure of the Russian state, as it is being built, to a test of its durability. It is more than that - it is foolhardy."
The lower house of parliament later rejected a non-binding resolution suggesting Mr Yeltsin should step down. Only 208 deputies backed the resolution proposed by a communist, 18 short of the number needed for approval.
But the chamber approved a separate motion asking Mr Yeltsin's doctors to submit a written report on his health by March 1st.
"Yeltsin effectively does not rule the state. The country is dying, in a state of deepest crisis," said Mr Viktor Ilyukhin, who put forward the main resolution on Mr Yeltsin's health.
The presidential press secretary, Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said the doctors would provide such a report in line with the "informational style of Kremlin openness".
Mr Yeltsin is gradually returning to the Kremlin. He met his chief-of-staff, Mr Anatoly Chubais, yesterday at the residence where he is recuperating outside Moscow and discussed a parliamentary address he is due to make on March 6th.
Mr Yeltsin has looked thin and moved awkwardly in television footage. He has had at least two heart attacks, underwent heart surgery last November and spent 12 days in hospital with pneumonia last month.
Proposals for constitutional changes include allowing the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, to act as president until the end of Mr Yeltsin's scheduled term if he is unfit to govern, reducing the president's powers, setting up a state council to govern or having the next president chosen by parliament.
Mr Yeltsin set aside the old constitution in September 1993 by exceeding his authority and dissolving the sitting parliament. When opponents launched an armed uprising from the legislature's headquarters, he used troops to crush resistance.
Mr Yeltsin touched in his radio speech on two of the problems dogging his four-year second term - delays in paying pensions and the rebel Chechnya region.
He said pensions would be paid and urged the Chechen President, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, who was sworn in on Wednesday, to concentrate on ensuring peace rather than pushing for secession.