The release of jailed leaders of October's hardline revolt casts doubt over President Boris Yeltsin's future and raises concern about fresh political and economic instability in Russia, bankers and businessmen said.


"It obviously adds to the general unease," a Western banker said Tuesday.


Others reacted more strongly. "This is terrifying," said one Russian banker who asked not to be named. "There's one option left for President Yeltsin: to resign," he said. "But he won't do so and there will be chaos."


Under a parliamentary amnesty, the revolt leaders walked free from Moscow's Lefortovo prison on Saturday only four months after their uprising was crushed by Yeltsin with tanks.


The president failed to keep the men who rebelled against him behind bars after parliament granted them an amnesty using rights granted under a new constitution that Yeltsin almost wrote himself.


Bankers and businessmen saw no immediate impact on the economy after the freeing of former Vice President Alexander Rutskoi and Ruslan Khasbulatov, chairman of the old legislature.


But after the amnesty, they said Yeltsin looked weak and vulnerable and the Russian economy increasingly unpredictable. Khasbulatov has said he is quitting politics. But Rutskoi, once one of Russia's most popular politicians, is expected to revive his campaign for presidential elections due in 1996.


"My concern is not the fact that these gentlemen are now on the streets," said one Western business executive. "My real worry is that Yeltsin has failed to lead the country at a critical junction and may not be able to do so in the future."


A Western banker put it bluntly: "No one is going to put any money into Russia under the present unpredictable situation."


Many bankers and economists have already been coming to grips with a swing towards what some call "neo-Soviet-style" reforms under a new-look Russian government.


The new government, named after voters delivered a stinging rebuff to reformers in December polls, looks determined to favor industrial production rather than inflation control.


But since taking office, it has remained in a chaotic state. Nearly three months into 1994, a budget is yet to be approved.


(Information from staff writer Carey Scott and Reuters was used in this report.)