Now, The Hardliners Are Zeroing In On Yeltsin's Foreign Policy

All smiles, President Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin clinked glasses in the Kremlin on Jan. 3 to toast signing the momentous START II treaty that will sharply reduce strategic nuclear weapons. But the euphoria will probably wear off quickly. Yeltsin's opponents in the Parliament aim to see to that. They are now turning their attention to foreign policy after forcing him to replace his reformist Prime Minister, Yegor T. Gaidar, with state industrialist Viktor S. Chernomyrdin in December. The loose coalition of Communist hardliners, nationalists, and dissatisfied industrialists is pushing for the ouster of Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev. They also want Yeltsin to adopt a less pro-Western, more nationalist Russian policy.

The struggle could further weaken Yeltsin and lead to strains with the incoming Clinton Adminstration on issues ranging from Yugoslavia to Russian arms sales. The U.S. is already deeply concerned that Yeltsin has been forced to backslide on the economic-reform front. Chernomyrdin recently set off alarms after announcing that he would slap Soviet-style price controls back on milk, bread, meat, and other essentials.