Lebed raises new problems for Yeltsin with `security concept'

ON THE surface things look good for President Yeltsin. His popularity ratings have risen and his communist opponent, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, in what appeared to be an admission of imminent defeat, called for a coalition government.

But beneath the surface there are rumblings of discontent, particularly in the security services.

Yesterday morning, Gen Alexander Lebed, the newly appointed head of the Russian Security Council, presented a 16 page document to Mr Yeltsin which formed the basis of a new "security concept". It is understood that this has already met sharp resistance within the agencies which formerly made up the KGB.

Mr Lebed, in the week since his arrival in the corridors of power, has seen off four of Mr Yeltsin's closest confidants the First Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Oleg Soskovets the security chief, Gen Mikhail Barsukov the Defence Minister, Gen Pavel Grachev and the chief of the presidential bodyguard, Gen Alexander Korzhakov.

Yesterday, a fifth name was added to the list when Mr Vladimir Rubanov, the deputy head of the Security Council resigned "at Gen Lebed's initiative".

Mr Rubanov was a protege of Mr Oleg Lobov, a "hardliner" who is still in government as Mr Soskovets's replacement in the post of First Deputy Prime Minister, Gen Lebed's Kremlin purge being far from complete.

Later yesterday, in fact, Mr Rubanov announced that reports of his resignation were "premature".

The new "security concept" is understood to threaten others in the top echelon of the administration. One security source told The Irish Times yesterday that moves had already begun to collect kompromat (the KGB term for compromising material) on Gen Lebed.

The General himself may have stirred up a hornet's nest with an article in the Moscow Tribune in which he wrote that he had no personal loyalty to Mr Yeltsin.

"I have always stood and I shall always stand for Russia, and it is Russia only that I am personally dedicated to ... I have repeated often enough that I am permanently allergic to former members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and this applies to Zyuganov and Yeltsin," the general wrote.

In an administration in which personal loyalty is prized above all else, Gen Lebed appears to be making all the wrong noises. But Mr Yeltsin cannot afford to react until after the second round polls on July 3rd.

The latest opinion polls give Mr Yeltsin 53 per cent against Mr Zyuganov's 34, but polls here are unreliable. In the first round most pollsters gave Mr Yeltsin a 12 point lead, but in the end he led by three points.

A great deal will depend on the turnout, particularly in cities such as St Petersburg, a liberal stronghold, where voter apathy is high.

Mr Zyuganov yesterday called for the formation of a coalition government comprising one third Yeltsin supporters, one third of his own team and one third from other groups.

Some analysts considered the suggestion as an early admission of defeat. But others believe he was trying to don the mantle of "responsibility" after the upheaval in the Yeltsin camp last week.

He cited the war in Chechnya as one of the main problems facing Russia.