President Boris Yeltsin on Wednesday heaped criticism on Andrei Kozyrev, raising the possibility once more that he will dismiss his foreign minister.


After a conference with his closest advisers in the Kremlin, Yeltsin held up several of his ministries and departments to reproach for "failures in executive discipline," said chief presidential aide Viktor Ilyushin, according to Itar-Tass.


"Great disquiet was expressed in an exchange of opinions about the activity of the Russian Foreign Ministry," Ilyushin told Itar-Tass.


Asked what this new round of criticism might mean for Kozyrev and the Foreign Ministry, Ilyushin gave a cryptic answer veiled in Kremlin-speak:


"The president is not in the habit of acting blindly in personnel matters," he said.


Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that Yeltsin would destabilize Russian foreign policy on the eve of parliamentary elections by removing his foreign minister, according to analysts.


"He will remove him after the election, after he has fixed the course of his new policy," said Sergei Markov of the Moscow Carnegie Center.


"Kozyrev's policy has always, 100 percent been Yeltsin's policy," Markov said. "Now, he wants to change his policy, and he wants to criticize his old policy, and that's why he's criticizing Kozyrev."


"He can't criticize himself, so he has to find someone," he said.


Yeltsin could likely re-formulate his policy along anti-Western -- or at least less pro-Western -- lines by seeking new partners in states like Iran, Iraq, India or even China, Markov said.


"He wanted to be a partner of the West, but the West didn't take him in," Markov said. "His policy ran into a dead end, so he's searching for another policy."


While that sort of foreign policy would likely place Russia even further from the West than it may already be, Markov cautioned against raising the specter of a renewed Cold War.


It is easier, he said, to deal with a Russia in opposition than a Russia that is trying to be a friend.


Yeltsin has on several occasions criticized Kozyrev for the failures of Russian foreign policy in the former Yugoslavia.


Not only are Russia's traditional Orthodox allies, the Serbs, under attack by NATO forces, but Russia's opinion in the military and political settlement of the Balkan crisis is virtually ignored.


Yeltsin is not alone in his criticism. The lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has called for Kozyrev's head as well, also in connection with Russia's failure to become a player in Bosnia.


Vladimir Lukin, chairman of the Duma's foreign affairs committee, told Interfax on Wednesday that there are at least five or six people within and outside the Foreign Ministry who could replace Kozyrev, but he declined to name them.


He added that Kozyrev's decision to run for a Duma seat from the 116th district in Murmansk will force him to resign his position as foreign minister, should he be elected.


Under a law to take effect with the convocation of the new Duma, deputies can not hold ministerial offices. Kozyrev, 44, has been foreign minister for five years.