July 10, 1999
Web posted at: 1:09 a.m. EDT (0509 GMT)

MOSCOW -- President Boris Yeltsin is urging Russia's regional leaders to ensure that democratic forces win a majority of seats in the parliamentary elections.

Yeltsin has made efforts recently to assure that the vote, tentatively set for December, is free of election abuses. But he has also established a new media ministry and kept up a verbal offensive against the Communist Party -- moves that suggest he's trying to gain more control over the election campaign.

"We must achieve this goal," he said at the beginning of a meeting with Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, according to the Interfax news agency.

Yeltsin met with several leaders of Russia's 89 regions on Thursday to discuss the pre-election situation.

He assured Stepashin that "the political situation in Russia is quiet," apparently trying to play down fears of a major shakeup in his own camp or against his enemies before the parliamentary vote and next summer's presidential elections.

The president repeated the warning he gave top military brass on Thursday that Russia will avoid confrontation with the West over the Yugoslavia conflict.

Russia "must act with certainty, cautiously, delicately and precisely" in its relationship with NATO," he told Stepashin.

Russia vehemently opposed NATO's airstrikes on Yugoslavia, and locked horns with the alliance over the role Russian peacekeepers would play in the Kosovo province.

The disagreement over the Russian peacekeepers has been resolved, but relations between NATO and Russia are still wary at best.

Yeltsin also expressed concern over Russia's 1999 harvest, which is expected to be some 15 million tons below forecasts because of spring frosts and a summer drought. Arid weather has "undercut the peasants and has demanded greater outlays," he said.

After the meeting, Yeltsin headed to his country residence at Rus, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) outside Moscow, where he will be spending his vacation. He had originally hoped to travel to one of his favorite rest spots in northeastern Russia, but changed plans because the weather is warmer at Rus, the Interfax news agency said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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