Yeltsin Says Tough U.S. Stance Ahead

President Boris Yeltsin on Monday predicted a new period of thorny relations with the United States following the sweeping Republican gains in last week's mid-term elections to Congress.


"We can expect a certain toughening on the American side over foreign policy issues and military problems," Yeltsin told a gathering of military commanders in the Defense Ministry in a speech covered by Itar-Tass and Interfax.


Yeltsin, speaking as supreme commander of the armed forces, said Russia would have to "establish good contacts with the Republicans in order to even out relations" after two years of close working with President Bill Clinton.


Signs of a tougher Republican influenced line towards Russia in Washington have become evident already in the days since the elections.


Republican Senator Jesse Helms, soon to head the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has made clear his priorities to reduce foreign aid, curtail U.S. involvement in United Nations peacekeeping operations and accelerate NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe.Almost as soon as the votes were in, Clinton agreed to withdraw U.S. personnel and ships from the international arms blockade on Bosnia, a move that drew swift condemnation from the Russian parliament.


Since the end of the Cold War the two military superpowers have clashed over policy in the Middle East, Bosnia and minor spy scandals. But both sides have consistently spoken of "partnership" rather than conflict.


While warning of a cooling in relations with the United States Monday, Yeltsin said the main threat to Russia came not from the west but from "local conflicts" and emerging military nations. He said Russia would have to respond faster and more flexibly to the threat of nuclear proliferation in developing countries.


Yeltsin warned that the risk of a nuclear conflict sparked by developing nations was increasing, as was "the potential for the spread of existing and new military conflicts which Russia may be dragged into because of its geopolitical and geostrategic interests."


Before journalists were ushered out of the meeting Yeltsin said the army was slimming down but said the process was not yet finished. He said that the army had been reduced by 385,000 men in 1994 and would officially number 1,917,400 men on Jan. 1. He said it should number 1.7 million men on Jan. 1 1996.


But in what appeared to be a veiled criticism of the tough draft 1995 budget, the president said he would call his prime minister, sitting behind him, to account if the army was not properly subsidized.


"Insufficient financing of the armed forces ought to be done away with," Yeltsin said. "You have given your word to take care of the financing of the army, Viktor Stepanovich, and I believe you."


The meeting ran into controversy when Alexander Piskunov, deputy chairman of the State Duma's Defense Committee, who has special responsibility for the military budget, was refused entry. The committee later decided to debate a motion of no confidence in Defense Minister Pavel Grachev on Thursday, Interfax reported.


Committee chairman Sergei Yushenkov, a leading member of the reformist Russia's Choice bloc, told Russian television Monday that the decision not to admit Piskunov was "ridiculous" and repeated his call for Grachev to resign.


Yushenkov said it would be "better for everyone" if Grachev stepped down. The army's reputation has been tarnished in recent months after the murder of investigative reporter Dmitry Kholodov who was researching corruption in the Western group of forces.


Yeltsin's national security adviser Yury Baturin told the official news agency Itar-Tass that rumors of Grachev's resignation were only "abstract speculation."


In another development, Itar-Tass reported that the government bureaucracy will soon be cut by 30 percent.


Quoting "sources in the government" the agency said parallel structures and offices which duplicated the same job in Moscow and the provinces would be abolished.


Yeltsin fired Vladimir Kvasov, the powerful head of the government administration and a close ally of the prime minister Friday. In June he had accused Yeltsin of "taking on too many" bureaucrats.


The reduction in the government apparatus would go together with a planned reduction in Yeltsin's administration by 500 people announced last week.


Government minister without portfolio and veteran politician Nikolai Travkin finally parted company with the party he himself founded at the weekend, Izvestia reported in its Tuesday edition.


The paper said Travkin had not shown up at a central meeting of his own Democratic Party of Russia, which then voted no confidence in him.


The meeting then agreed that Sergei Glazyev, a bitter rival of Travkin's and former foreign trade minister, should be the new leader. Glazyev had joined the party only a few days before.


Travkin's party, one of the very first to form in Russia after the monopoly of the Communist Party was lifted in 1990 has been deeply split in recent months since Travkin joined the government.