Flamboyant ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky trumpeted the beginning of a fall season of political combat, when he staged a walkout of the State Duma on Friday and removed his signature from President Boris Yeltsin's Pact on Civic Accord.


But the prospect of a mass opposition boycott of the legislature crumbled when the Communist and Agrarian factions, which had initially offered Zhirinovsky their support, returned to the chamber and carried on work.


"It's not a pact, it's a provocation," Zhirinovsky shouted before leading the 60 members of his faction out of the chamber.


He said his boycott was in protest at an incident last Sunday when a chartered airplane en route to North Korea with himself and 28 other deputies from his Liberal Democratic Party on board was refused permission to land in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. Local officials said the runway was blocked and the plane was diverted to Tomsk, 90 kilometers away.


"It was an act of political terrorism," Zhirinovsky said. He said the incident was planned in advance by the authorities in Moscow with the connivance of governor of Kemerovo, Mikhail Kislyuk. He said the plane was running on a virtually empty fuel tank when it landed in Tomsk. Another 15 kilometers and it would have crashed, he said.


Transport Minister Vitaly Yefimov, summoned by deputies to explain what happened, told the Duma that a commission had begun studying the airplane's black box. He promised to report back on its findings after Oct. 15.


Initially two large factions, the Communists and the Agrarians, and two smaller groupings supporting Zhirinovsky had said they would not vote all day Friday. Their boycott would have completely immobilized the Duma just three days into its new season, depriving it of more than 180 deputies out of a total of 446.


But after a hastily assembled meeting behind closed doors of the Council of the Duma, the Communists and Agrarians rejoined the session and added their votes to the ratification of a treaty on economic union with CIS countries. It was approved by 285 votes to two against with two abstentions.


Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov advised Zhirinovsky to return to the Duma as well and take part in a debate next Wednesday on relations with the president.


Zyuganov, whose party was reportedly approached with an offer to join the government, said he would not take any part in the government while Yeltsin was still president.


Zyuganov and his allies in the Agrarian Party did not sign Yeltsin's domestic political truce, the Pact on Civic Accord last April. He said Friday he was pleased that Zhirinovsky, who rarely cooperates with the mainstream opposition, had now pulled out of the pact and was taking a more aggressive stance against the president.


"Zhirinovsky is slowly and surely getting more sober," Zyuganov said.


Zhirinovsky, who adores the limelight parliament gives him, hinted that his boycott might not last long. He said his faction might return to the chamber next week after the leadership held a meeting Tuesday.


?The Federation Council has approved a controversial agreement which will safeguard Moscow's manned space program for the time being by renting the Baikonur cosmodrome for the next 20 years.


The council voted to pass the treaty, under which Russia will lease the cosmodrome from Kazakhstan at an annual cost of $115 million. The deal was criticized by some deputies who said it was ruinously expensive for Russia.