This Time, Boris Yeltsin May Fire Himself

The panic in Moscow isn’t on the streets; it’s in the Kremlin. Top Yeltsin aides have been stoking Russia’s rumor mill all week, hinting variously that their boss is considering declaring a state of emergency, planning to resign this weekend and call early presidential elections, or looking to simply rely on his familiar when-in-doubt-fire-the-prime-minister formula. Yeltsin aides are also warning that he’s facing another life-threatening health crisis and even –- in the case of one bizarre story leaked from within the Kremlin –- that the Russian president died last week. "There are no more illusions now," says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier. "This is the endgame for Boris Yeltsin." Three bomb attacks that killed more than 250 apartment dwellers in a single week have created a groundswell of calls for action among the nation’s politicians –- and Friday’s call by Yeltsin loyalist and Federation Council speaker Yegor Stroyev for the president to step down signals the mounting clamor for his ouster.

"The bombings, the renewed fighting in Chechnya and Dagestan, the mounting swirl of scandal, are all bringing the crisis to a boil," says Meier. "Something has to give. One of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals is now in the hands of a small coterie of aides terrified of losing their positions, surrounding and protecting a feeble old man whose power is steadily draining." Despite the frenzy of morbid clairvoyance sweeping the political elite, ordinary Russians remain depressed and indifferent. And that’s hardly surprising. A fourth bomb exploded in a St. Petersburg apartment building Thursday night, killing two people and wounding three others. But that attack wasn’t linked to the others, authorities said. That one was probably gang-related, they opined –- simply business as usual in Boris Yeltsin’s Russia.