Human Rights Commissioner Sergei Kovalyov told reporters Friday that Yeltsin had mentioned to him, during a one-on-one meeting, that Poptsov's fate was sealed.
But three days later, with Russian Television staff standing behind their boss and threatening a strike, Poptsov's future was undecided as a presidential decree dismissing him failed to appear.
"It's all up in the air," a Russian Television spokesperson said Monday.
Poptsov, in an interview with the popular news program "Itogi" on Sunday, reacted to news of his possible dismissal as if it were already final, linking Yeltsin's move with the Russian State Television Company's independent coverage of the war in Chechnya.
Poptsov accused Yeltsin's close aides of constantly lobbying against him.
"The president is also human, and he feels uncomfortable when they tell him every day, 'Get rid of this Poptsov, he is working against you,'" the television chief told Itogi.
In a telephone conversation with Yeltsin's chief spokesman, Vyacheslav Kostikov, broadcast by several television stations, Poptsov singled out the chief of Yeltsin's bodyguard, Alexander Korzhakov, as the most active campaigner against him. But viewers could only hear Poptsov's part of the conversation, recorded in his office. Kostikov, according to Poptsov, had no consolation to offer, saying he had heard Yeltsin harshly criticizing the TV chief.
Poptsov said that, far from slanting its coverage against Yeltsin, his company was trying to inform the president of facts that his entourage was concealing.
"When the president orders that the bombing of Grozny be stopped and the bombing goes on, the president should be alarmed," Poptsov said. "If he is not being told about it, we should tell him that his orders are being disobeyed, and that he is being misled."
State television workers held a general meeting last week passing a resolution to remind Yeltsin that they had elected Poptsov as their chief, and that they would stand by him.
"The staff is ready to go to the end of the line to defend our chairman and the right to free, honest coverage that the chairman has taught us to value," Alexander Nekhoroshev, the top producer of "Vesti" news, told "Itogi."
However there were signs that Yeltsin may have reconsidered his decision to fire Poptsov.
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai told Russian Television that the matter had been discussed at a meeting of the Security Council, and that he and other council members spoke out against the move.
"The firing of Poptsov would be considered not as a personal tragedy for the founder of the Russian State Television Company," Shakhrai said, "but as a crackdown on the media. That is impermissible."
Poptsov, who founded the station four years ago, steadfastly supported Yeltsin during the two abortive coup attempts, in 1991 and 1993.
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