Yeltsin shows who's in control prior to China visit

Shortly before he left Moscow yesterday for Beijing, President Boris Yeltsin ensured that his Chinese counterparts knew who was boss in the Russian capital. As he prepared for the long journey eastwards, Mr Yeltsin announced that he had dismissed the head of the Russian navy, Admiral Felix Gromov. No reason was given for Admiral Gromov's dismissal, but there have been a number of cases of corruption in the military in the past. Russia is believed to have the largest navy in the world, with over 200,000 sailors belonging to the Baltic, Pacific, Black Sea and Northern fleets.

Admiral Gromov was replaced by Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov; but no replacement has yet been announced for the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Mr Boris Berezovsky, who was sacked last Thursday.

Russian TV, which follows the line dictated by the Yeltsin administration, was severely critical over the weekend of the decision to fire Mr Berezovsky.

Vremya, the country's main news programme, launched a fierce attack on the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Anatoly Chubais, on Saturday night.

It should be noted that Mr Berezovsky personally owns 8 per cent of ORT, the station on which Vremya is screened, and indirectly owns another 38 per cent of the channel through holding companies.

Mr Yeltsin was to spend one night resting in Beijing before beginning his third series of summit meetings in China in three years today. The main item expected to emerge from the talks is the agreement on the demarcation of the current 2,800-mile frontier between the two countries.

The talks are also expected to confirm the continuance of an eastward shift in Russia's foreign relations balancing the westward trend taken by the Soviet Union under President Gorbachev.

Co-operation between Russia, the world's largest country, and China, which is the world's most populous, is also expected to extend to fighting crime and smuggling along the frontier, where major problems have existed since Mr Yeltsin dismantled the Soviet Union in 1992.

Even while Mr Yeltsin's Presidential aircraft, Rossiya, was en route to Beijing, Mr Vladimir Lukin of the Russo-Chinese Peace and Development Commission was praising the current state of Sino-Russian relations and pointing to them as an example to be followed by Russia and Japan, who have still to agree that second World War hostilities between them have officially ended.

Mr Lukin, at a Moscow press conference, also said Russia's vast stocks of minerals and energy resources would make it "a key state in north-east Asia".

AFP adds: Thousands of Russians staged a protest in Moscow yesterday against the scheduled screening of the controversial film The Last Temptation of Christ.

The private television station NTV reported on the demonstration outside its Moscow headquarters but said it would not drop its plans to show film last night. NTV has twice pulled the 1988 Martin Scorsese film from its schedules already this year after protests from the Russian Orthodox Church and parliamentary deputies.