Confident Yeltsin expects election win in first round

PRESIDENT Yeltsin, ahead in most of the polls for Sunday's crucial election, is now sure he will gain more than 50 per cent of the vote and thus avoid a second round of voting in July.

His main opponent, the communist, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, will have none of this and says "Candidate Yeltsin is simply being fooled", while the rightwing leader, Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, forecast a Zionist takeover. The truth is that nobody is sure what is going to happen on Sunday.

The fairly reliable VTsIOM polling agency now puts Mr Yeltsin well ahead with 37 per cent to Mr Zyuganov's 26 per cent. The poll has a margin of error of 3.8 per cent. But even this is well below what Mr Yeltsin expects.

Speaking on NTV, a hitherto independent station whose director general is now a media consultant for the President's campaign, Mr Yeltsin announced he would win more than 50 per cent on Sunday. "Either that or I don't know my people," he told the interviewer, Mr Yevgeny Kiselyov.

"I have optimistic figures and I have forbidden my staff to work towards the second round" Mr Yeltsin said, adding that there would be no "revolutions or earthquakes" after he wins but there might be some changes in the "corrupt middle circles of my team".

If canvassing throughout the country deserves striking results, then Mr Yeltsin deserves to win. ,Yesterday he was in Novosibirsk in Siberia, and then moved to southern Russia where he made an appeal to Cossacks to "devote your force, knowledge and skills to the noble service of the fatherland".

He will continue his visit to the south today; tomorrow he will attend Independence Day celebrations in Moscow; on Thursday he will be in St Petersburg in the morning and in his home city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals in the evening.

While Mr Yeltsin was spending most of his time in the air, his advisers were talking about a possible alliance with the nationalist Gen Alexander Lebed. At a press conference in Moscow yesterday, Mr Georgy Satarov, senior aide to Mr Yeltsin, considered Gen Lebed to be a better ally to the President that the democratic candidate, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky.

Mr Satarov also warned that the communists had armed detachments ready to seize power against the will of the people if they lose the elections.

"The election's wild card, Mr Zhirinovsky, was also talking about the use of force yesterday and said interior ministry troops had been sent to air defence installations in Moscow.

Always someone to follow a serious allegation with an outrageous one, Mr Zhirinovsky, at his Moscow press conference, went on to say that "the appearance of men in white suits in the Kremlin suggests that the Zionists are preparing for a serious fight".

He announced Mr Zyuganov would win 30 per cent of the vote in the first round, that Mr Yeltsin would get 25 per cent and that he, would get 20 per cent himself. This would put him in a position to be the king maker in the second round. Earlier this week Mr Zyuganov hinted that a deal with Mr Zhirinovsky could not be ruled out.

As for Mr Yeltsin's NTV interview with Mr Kiselyov, Mr Zhirinovsky went straight on to the attack. NTV was, he said, a "CIA branch" in Russia and Mr Kiselyov was a "CIA agent".

The interviewer was at least spared the accusation of being a Zionist but perhaps that is yet to come.