Step forward for Yeltsin

President Boris Yeltsin yesterday welcomed progress by a special assembly called to write a new Russian constitution and predicted a text would be ready by the end of this month, Helen Womack writes from Moscow.

Before adjourning yesterday for 10 days, the assembly of provincial politicians, government officials and business leaders passed a declaration which showed they agreed that Russia should be a democracy respecting human rights, the principle of equality before the law and the right to private property.