The last time Lev Ponomaryov saw Boris Yeltsin was in June 1993. As co-chairman of the Democratic Russia movement that swept the president to power, Ponomaryov used to be one of a bevy of close liberal advisers -- but things have changed a great deal in the Kremlin since then.


"Earlier we used to be very close," Ponomaryov said in an interview, after describing how he and two other liberal politicians, Sergei Yushenkov and Sergei Kovalyov, virtually forced their way into Yeltsin's presence when he was on holiday last June.


"He regularly discussed key decisions with us. In the decree on disbanding the Soviet Communist Party you can see all our recommendations are there," he said. "But then we started to meet more and more rarely."


Ponomaryov's is a common lament, for as parliament returns to work this week and Russia's political season lurches back into motion, new battle lines have been drawn in Moscow that no longer center on the course of reforms, but instead cut through the middle of Yeltsin's ample figure.


A swirl of political and personal rumors around Yeltsin have put his intentions under the spotlight, as he has attained an unchallenged position of dominance in the country. Abandoned allies and Kremlin watchers have been asking -- whose side is Yeltsin on?


Speaking to the world's press on Tuesday Yeltsin gave mixed signals. He said he would welcome "sensible professionals" from the opposition into the government. But when asked whether he could be relied on to be the linchpin of the democratic movement he said: "I don't want to go into that in detail, but I can tell you unequivocally, yes."


Not so, according to some of Yeltsin's current and former democrat friends.


"A fight is going on over the president as democrat," Vyacheslav Kostikov, Yeltsin's press secretary told Interfax recently. Along with other liberal-oriented advisers, Kostikov was left behind during Yeltsin's visit to the United States, making public an ideological split in the Kremlin.


The president has already parted with many of his one-time reformist allies, men like the pioneer of economic reforms Yegor Gaidar and his top strategist Gennady Burbulis. The government is now basically a coalition, with privatization chief Anatoly Chubais the only remaining radical reformer.


All this has set alarm bells ringing amongst the demokraty, the men who were Yeltsin's closest allies when he began his political revival five years ago.


A tough statement Wednesday from Democratic Russia entitled "The President Must Decide" accused Yeltsin of falling prey to a clutch of Kremlin insiders and old Communist-style bureaucrats. The statement did not name names, but it appeared aimed at the president's top aide, Viktor Ilyushin, an old colleague from Sverdlovsk, and the head of his bodyguard and former KGB officer, Alexander Korzhakov, who are said to wield enormous influence.


Ponomaryov believes that Yeltsin has now lost his way.


"He is tactically surrendering to the opposition and it's very dangerous," Ponomaryov said of Yeltsin. "One day he won't have the strength to resist and then reforms will be finished."


Yet Ponomaryov conceded that Yeltsin remains the democrats' best candidate for presidential elections in 1996.


Kremlin watchers had differe KGB officer, Alexander Korzhakov, who are said to wield enormous influence.


Ponomaryov believes that Yeltsin has now lost his way.


"He is tactically surrendering to the opposition and it's very dangerous," Ponomaryov said of Yeltsin. "One day he won't have the strength to resist and then reforms will be finished."


Yet Ponomaryov conceded that Yeltsin remains the democrats' best candidate for presidential elections in 1996.


Kremlin watchers had different intrpretations of the president tactics.


"Yeltsin has less to be confrontational about", said one Western diplomat. He said the president could


pursue his reforms less aggressively after his decisive victory over the parliamemtary opposition


last year and now that the country had achieved a ' lurching stability.'