Firing of Premier Is 'Fiction and Lies'

Boris Yeltsin's personal spokesman on Thursday roundly rejected a newspaper report alleging that the president was planning to fire Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and replace him with industrialist leader Yury Skokov.Presidential press secretary Vyacheslav Kostikov, speaking at a press briefing, called the front-page report in Thursday's edition of Komsomolskaya Pravda "fiction and lies from start to finish."The newspaper, quoting anonymous "informed sources" reported that Chernomyrdin, 56, would resign for health reasons and "would apparently agree to this formula."The prime minister has spent this week in a clinic in southern Germany being examined for a kidney stones complaint. He said he would return to Russia on Friday to continue his two-week holiday, according to the Associated Press.The report is reminiscent of an alleged plan to remove Yeltsin on grounds of health that surfaced while the president was vacationing on the Black Sea in March. That alleged "palace coup," which implicated Skokov among others, was later dismissed as a forgery.Komsomolskaya Pravda said on Thursday Yeltsin had met Skokov, who used to head his Security Council, this week to discuss his appointment. But Kostikov also denied that a meeting had taken place, Itar-Tass reported.The newspaper said that Yeltsin had chosen Skokov, currently the chairman of the Federation of Commodities Producers and Entrepreneurs of Russia, because he could use his connections and political skills to smooth over Yeltsin's troubles with the new parliament. In his recently published memoirs, "The View from the Kremlin," Yeltsin expresses his hope that "we'll see this semiofficial shadow prime minister in politics again."Skokov, 55, nearly became prime minister in December 1992 in succession to Yegor Gaidar when he topped a ballot of five candidates in the Supreme Soviet for prime minister.