Yeltsin Delays Vote on Premier, Plans Talks

MOSCOW — Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Thursday suspended his call for confirmation of acting Prime Minister Sergei V. Kiriyenko to allow time for negotiations with opponents, signaling either a newfound spirit of cooperation with political rivals, worsening illness or both.

The decision also prompted reports that Yeltsin would postpone his visit to Japan planned for late next week, although his spokesman refused to confirm whether any final decision had been made.

Yeltsin’s surprise announcement of round-table talks next week to form a new government was issued from a state rest house 80 miles northwest of Moscow after he received leaders of both houses of parliament who are threatening to scuttle Kiriyenko’s nomination.

Neither the lower house, the Duma, nor the Federation Council has any real power to block the appointment because the constitution allows the president to disband parliament and call new elections if deputies refuse three times to accept his choice for Cabinet chief.

A Duma debate and preliminary vote on Kiriyenko’s nomination had been scheduled for today. Yeltsin last week warned the Communist-dominated chamber that it risked dissolution if the usually contentious deputies dared withhold confirmation.

But a more conciliatory Yeltsin met with the parliamentary leaders at the Rus residence in Zavidovo, agreeing to consider suggestions from all political forces represented in the parliament at Tuesday round-table talks and to put off the first ballot on Kiriyenko until a day after those negotiations.

“The meeting took place in a frank, constructive and amiable atmosphere,” Yeltsin was quoted by his press service as saying. He also was said to have complimented Gennady N. Seleznyov, the Communist chairman of the Duma, and Federation Council Chairman Yegor S. Stroyev for “keeping in mind the best interests of Russia.”

Soon after the announcement that Kiriyenko’s nomination vote was being delayed, the Itar-Tass news agency issued a report stating that Yeltsin’s April 11-13 visit to Japan also was being postponed. That report and two subsequent stories expanding on the schedule change cited “informed sources in Moscow.” The agency, which remains almost as close to the Kremlin as in its days as the Soviet regime’s mouthpiece, later killed all three stories without explanation.

Presidential spokesman Sergei V. Yastrzhembsky on Wednesday had raised the possibility of delaying Yeltsin’s trip to Japan for an informal summit with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto if Russia’s domestic political upheaval was still unsettled.

In view of the 67-year-old president’s history of heart disease and recent respiratory infections, however, that observation by Yastrzhembsky immediately prompted speculation that Yeltsin was still too frail from a mid-March illness to make the long journey.

Only two weeks ago, doctors advised Yeltsin against undertaking even a two-hour flight to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg for a meeting with German and French leaders. Instead, the “troika” summit was held near Moscow.

By giving in to opponents’ demands for negotiations on the Cabinet appointments, Yeltsin secured a credible excuse for putting off the Japan visit and any disclosure that his health may still be in question.

Yeltsin fired former Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin and his entire Cabinet on March 23, complaining that economic reforms had become stagnant and new faces and ideas were needed. But since that radical housecleaning, the ever-unpredictable president has publicly announced that many of the key ministers will soon be hired back.

Communists and nationalists in the Duma have balked at the nomination of Kiriyenko. The 35-year-old former banker and oil-industry executive is still expected to lay out his vision for the government through 2000 before the Duma today.