PHIL REEVES

Kohl pilloried over visit to Russia

Boris Yeltsin yesterday declared that his government reshuffle was more or less complete, after a turbulent few weeks in which he has lurched towards the hardline camp and given his supporters at home and abroad a nasty dose of the jitters.

HELEN WOMACK

Hostage crisis: Liberals seek no-confidence vote and privatisation minister resigns as Russian onslaught on rebels continues

HELEN WOMACK

HELEN WOMACK

War in Chechnya: Heavy casualties in republic's second city threaten Yeltsin's bid to legitimise puppet regime

Modern Russian politics defeats facile explanation. By Godfrey Hodgson; An Empire's New Clothes: The End of Russia's Liberal Regime by Bruce Clark Vintage, pounds 7.99

Moscow - Russia's democratic movement suffered a fresh blow to its troubled political fortunes after its strongest pro-reformist party, Yabloko, was banned from the forthcoming parliamentary elections, allegedly for violating the rules, writes Phil Reeves.

MOSCOW (Reuter) - President Boris Yeltsin, who suffered a mild heart attack on Thursday, was reported in stable condition in hospital yesterday, but doctors barred all visitors except members of his family.

YELTSIN ON THE BRINK

Shock was followed by confusion in the Commons yesterday when MPs were told that Boris Yeltsin was dead and, eight minutes later, that he was alive. Responding to false report from a Tory backbencher, Tony Newton, Leader of Commons, said the news would be "greeted with sadness and a degree of shock in the House". But minutes later another member, having checked the facts, pronounced the president alive.

Dave Hadfield heralds the most remarkable of the emerging nations