Yeltsin sacks media baron from CIS Council post

MOSCOW, MARCH 5: Russian President Boris Yeltsin has, from his hospital bed, fired controversial financier and media-moghul Boris Berezov...

MOSCOW, MARCH 5: Russian President Boris Yeltsin has, from his hospital bed, fired controversial financier and media-moghul Boris Berezovsky from his post of executive secretary of CIS countries. Yeltsin took the step as chairman of the Council of the CIS, a loose organisation of the 12 former Soviet republics.

Yeltsin8217;s press secretary Dmitry Yakushkin said, Berezovsky had exceeded his authority as CIS executive secretary, and refused to follow the Russian leader8217;s order to return to Moscow from Baku, the Azerbaijan capital.

Yeltsin also held telephonic conversations with other CIS leaders, informing them about the reasons, forcing him to sack Berezovsky.

Russian media reports said there was a mixed reaction from the CIS presidents.

Reacting on his dismissal, Berezovsky said Yeltsin was 8220;mistaken about his authority.8221; He could be fired only by a unanimous vote of the Council of the CIS presidents, television stations quoted him as saying.

Leaders of nearly all factions in the State Duma, thelower house of parliament, welcomed Berezovsky8217;s dismissal. Last month, the Duma had passed a resolution, for the second time in three months, urging the CIS to fire Berezovsky.

Communist speaker Gennady Seleznev said, 8220;It8217;s completely a right decision, as Boris Berezovsky had lately engaged in political conspiracies instead of fulfilling his duties as executive secretary of the CIS.8221;

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Berezovsky has been looked in a power struggle with Yevgeny Primakov ever since Yeltsin appointed him prime minister last September.

On Thursday, Yakushkin denied a report by the Russian AiF news service report that Yeltsin had given Primakov an ultimatum to remove key Communist members of his Cabinet within ten days or face dismissal.

Yeltsin, meanwhile, has been advised by his doctors to deal with only 8220;such state documents which are of utmost importance for the state,8221; according to the Russian official agency Novosti.

Doctors have fixed a very limited working schedule for the head of the state, whose freshbleeding stomach ulcer forced him to get hospitalised again. Describing Yeltsin8217;s condition as stable, doctors have however refused to give any date for his release from the hospital located in the suburbs of Moscow.

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That the Communist Party, the largest group in the Duma the lower house of parliament, continues to demand the president8217;s ouster is clear from party chairman Gennady Zyuganov8217;s statement on Thursday night that accord or no accord between the legislative and executive wings of power, his party 8220;does not trust a word voiced by the president.8221;

8220;Civil peace in Russia can materialise only with a change in the country8217;s social and economic course and a voluntary abdication of the presidential seat by Mr Yeltsin,8221; Zyuganov said.