YELTSIN HOGTIES PARLIAMENT

A day after he received a no-confidence vote from parliament,Russian President Boris Yeltsinupped the ante, asking for a second vote within the next ten days. A second no-confidence vote within a three-month period would clear the way for Yeltsin todissolve the legislatureand call for new elections. "It's a clever move designed to make the parliament either shut up or toe the line," says John Kohan, Moscow bureau chief for TIME. "The parliament has become a real irritation, with a rapidly growing block of anti-Yeltsin members. So Yeltsin will either get the parliament to back down, or he'll have them totally out of the way for a few months while he pursues his own legislative agenda." One thing Yeltsin can't afford to do, says Kohan, is lay low. "There's a real perception here that Yeltsin has been letting the country drift. He really has to show the public that there's a firm hand on the tiller."