Yeltsin: I'm `uniting' with rival

By JULIA RUBIN
Associated Press

Yavlinsky denied it, and Yeltsin's comments seemed mainly to reflect fervent Kremlin hopes that Russia's splintered pro-reform forces might finally coalesce behind the president.

With five weeks to go before the June 16 vote, polls show Yeltsin trailing or running neck-and-neck with Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov.

On a campaign swing in the Caspian Sea city of Astrakhan, Yeltsin told a meeting of supporters that he believes Yavlinsky and two other centrist candidates -- Alexander Lebed and Svyatoslav Fyodorov -- will back him.

``These hopes are based on my personal conversations'' with Yavlinsky and Lebed, and aides' talks with Fyodorov, Yeltsin said.

``I think this troika . . . will join the president's team,'' he said.

But he added that cooperation could take ``various forms,'' and would not necessarily require them to pull out of the race. Yeltsin could be thinking of a possible second round, which would pit the top two vote-getters against each other if no candidate won more than 50 percent in the first round.

Earlier in the day, when asked about uniting with Yavlinsky, Yeltsin told an Astrakhan crowd, ``We have met with him and we are uniting,'' Russian media reported.

But Yavlinsky told the NTV network in Moscow, ``The president's words that we have united don't correspond to reality.''

The liberal economist, who trails Zyuganov and Yeltsin significantly in polls, said his talks with Yeltsin last weekend focused on policy, not politics.

Yavlinsky had said earlier that he was ready to discuss a coalition with Yeltsin but played down the possibility Friday.

``I have great doubts about this,'' he told Russian television. ``It's too late now, with only 30 days left before the election.''

Zyuganov, the Communist front-runner, seemed unconcerned Saturday about a reformist alliance. He told Associated Press Television it would alienate voters and mean ``the end of Yavlinsky's political career.''

``You can't order the voters around,'' Zyuganov said.

Yeltsin, meanwhile, rejected Zyuganov's call for a televised debate, calling it a waste of time.

``I was a Communist for 30 years and had so much of that demagogy that today, with my democratic views, I can't bear it any more,'' the president said. ``So I don't need any debates with Zyuganov.''