Richard Nixon said Thursday he stood behind his decision to meet with former vice president Alexander Rutskoi earlier this week, although it provoked President Boris Yeltsin to angrily cancel all government meetings with the former U.S. president.


"Of course, I met with Rutskoi," Nixon said in an interview at a reception hosted by U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering. "He plans to be a candidate for president of Russia."


Yeltsin's press secretary Vyacheslav Kostikov warned Thursday that the incident had become "inappropriately emotional." He said Nixon's meeting with Rutskoi "engendered a situation which is affecting complex political issues of Russia's domestic affairs."


Nixon said he would continue to meet with opposition leaders "and anyone else who wants to talk." But the former president's trip, described as a fact-finding visit by a private citizen, has clearly been derailed by the row.


Nixon had just one meeting Thursday with Viktor Sheinis, a Duma deputy from Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko bloc.


Vladimir Zhirinovsky said in an interview Thursday he had not received an invitation to meet Nixon but was willing to speak to the former president. Nixon has said he plans to meet the ultranationalist politician during the visit which runs through Wednesday.


Later, however, a spokesman for the Liberal Democratic Party said Zhirinovsky, who heads the party, was "against " meeting Nixon, Reuters reported. The spokesman gave no reason.


Yeltsin's emotional response to Nixon's meeting with Rutskoi -- which included stripping the former U.S. president of his car and security -- drew some critical reactions Thursday.


Zhirinovsky called it "improper" and "not befitting the diplomatic duties of a president." Yavlinsky, a guest at the ambassador's reception Thursday, called Yeltsin's actions "stupid."


Nixon said that on Friday he planned to meet with leaders of the Women of Russia party and was working to meet with reformist leader Yegor Gaidar. Aside from Rutskoi, Nixon also met on Tuesday with Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.


Kathy O'Connor, a Nixon aide, said the staff was "regrouping" in the wake of the cancelation of most of the scheduled meetings.


In a symbol of the ex-president's unexpected abundance of free time, Nixon, 81, spent much of the day Thursday resting in his hotel room at the Baltschug Kempinski Hotel while several members of his staff went sightseeing.


In a press conference Wednesday, Nixon's top aide in Russia, Dmitry Simes, played down the impact of the snub on the former president.


"He is a big boy and has had his share of disappointments in his lifetime, some more serious than this," Simes said of Nixon, who in 1974 resigned as U.S. president because of his involvement in the Watergate scandal.