Moscow - President Boris Yeltsin insisted again yesterday that he will not run for a third term in 2000, and hinted that he has made up his mind on a favoured successor.
Mr Yeltsin told Russian media executives during a Kremlin meeting that he will not run for re-election after his second term expires in July 2000, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
Russia's post-Soviet constitution limits the president to two terms in office. But some of his top aides have said that despite repeated health problems Mr Yeltsin might run again, since he took office in 1991 before the constitution was adopted and thus is serving his first full term under that document.
"This question worries the public," said Mr Yeltsin.
Other likely candidates include the Communist Party head, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, who came in second in the 1996 balloting, and the former national security chief, Gen Alexander Lebed. Both are outspoken rivals of Mr Yeltsin.