THE Russian President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, was shown meeting his chief of staff, Gen Anatoly Chubais, at a sanatorium near Moscow in film released by Russian Television yesterday. In some 20 seconds of film, Mr Yeltsin smiled, gestured with both arms and could be heard discussing the state of the economy.
Mr Yeltsin moved from hospital last weekend to the Barvikha sanatorium to continue preparations for a heart bypass operation due in the next two months.
The Kremlin press service said "that poor tax collection and wage arrears were on the agenda of the meeting. It said that Mr Yeltsin had ordered government officials (to declare their income for 1996 and that he had described the current wage situation as unacceptable.
"Students, teachers, the military and other workers in the state sphere are not receiving wages because a number of big enterprises are literally taking the finances of the country by the throat and refusing to pay taxes", he said, according to the statement, which added that the meeting lasted for about an hour.
Tax evasion is one of the biggest economic problems facing the Russian government this year and income lags well behind budgeted levels. The Economy Minister, Mr Yevgeny Yasin, has said that he expects collection rates to improve in October or November. Wage arrears are also a major issue and workers across Russia have gone on strike to complain that they have not been paid for months.
The Russian security chief, Gen Alexander Lebed, meanwhile has fired a new broadside against NATO's eastward expansion plans a day after ending a visit to the alliance's headquarters which won praise from its leaders.
Gen Lebed, praised in Brussels as "a man with whom you could negotiate", returned to Russia to find his critics complaining at what they portrayed as a failure to win any concessions from NATO.
Gen Lebed responded by aecusing his rivals of missing golden opportunities to improve ties with NATO and then reverted to the fought stance he has taken on the issue.
"Will NATO's eastward expansion, towards our borders, towards the Baltic republics boost Russia's security?" ItarTass quoted him as saying at a scientific conference. "Nobody can guarantee that it won't occur to someone at some time to do to us what was recently done to Iraq."
Gen Lebed was referring to US missile attacks on Iraqi military targets last month after Baghdad sent troops into a quasi autonomous Kurdish zone in Iraq. Hiss renewed criticism of NATO is unlikely to shock alliance officials, some of whom realise the political risks of praising NATO to the Russian public Moscow has long depicted NATO's plans to take in countries of central and eastern Europe as a threat to its security.
While Gen Lebed was in Brussels, the Interior Minister, Mr Anatoly Kulikov, continued the offensive against him by publicly criticising one of his aides.
The opposition dominated lower house of parliament, which has already attacked Gen Lebed over the peace deal which he signed to end fighting in Chechnya, summoned him to clarify his position on NATO later this month.
A spokesman for the Security Council, the small group of leaders of which Mr Lebed is secretary, said that he was satisfied with his trip to Brussels and would report to Mr Yeltsin. But in comments suggesting that Mr Lebed may seek a large say or even control in Russia's NATO policy, the spokesman said: "Lebed thinks the last year has been a year of squandered opportunities in co operation between Russia and NATO."
The spokesman also discounted the significance of Mr Lebed's suggestion in Brussels that Moscow's big threat was from the south, saying. This does not mean that Russia has once and for all reconciled itself to NATO's eastward expansion."