Shevardnadze warns of fresh Soviet coup bid

uprising as the political fragmentation of the Soviet Union continued

apace today.

A growing schism between Russian President Boris Yeltsin's top

lieutenants burst into the open when Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi

criticised two top members of the republic's Government.

President Mikhail Gorbachev, who according to Yeltsin has accepted

that the Soviet Union will cease to exist by December 31, said that

after he resigned he would work to secure Western aid for the country,

the Russian Information Agency (RIA) said.

Shevardnadze, one of Gorbachev's right-hand men since 1985, told the

newspaper Kuranty the decline in living standards would accelerate with

Yeltsin's plan to free prices, a key element of his economic reforms.

''I am very apprehensive,'' Shevardnadze said. ''I do not know what to

call it -- a putsch, an uprising, an explosion -- but the threat is

still as great.''

Shevardnadze, who accurately predicted a right-wing coup attempt

against Gorbachev last August, said: ''It is immoral and irresponsible

to calm people down and tell them nothing will happen. We must tell

people the truth.''

RIA quoted close aide Sergei Tarasenko as saying Shevardnadze had no

plans to resign as Foreign Minister, but would relinquish his authority

when Yeltsin told him to.

Yeltsin said yesterday that Gorbachev accepted that his attempts to

hold the Soviet Union together had failed and promised support, despite

misgivings, for a new Commonwealth of Independent States.

Top Yeltsin aide Gennady Burbulis told reporters that five republics

had expressed their desire to join Russia, Ukraine, and Byelorussia, who

drew up the original agreement on December 8, in the commonwealth.

These were Armenia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and

Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan would possibly also join, he said.

Kazakhstan says it expects leaders of all six, plus Yeltsin and the

Ukrainian and Byelorussian presidents, to wrap up a deal on Saturday in

the Kazakh capital Alma-Ata.

A Kazakh spokesman said the grouping would be re-named the

Commonwealth of Independent Euro-Asian States.

Rutskoi, a former reformist communist, did not take part in drawing up

the commonwealth agreement and has been increasingly sidelined in

Russia.

But as vice-president he is the legal heir to Yeltsin, who is 60 and

has a heart condition.

Rutskoi's blistering attack on the Russian economic reform plans came

in a newspaper interview published today.

''We have entered not the market, but anarchy . . . It is impossible

to free prices without privatisation, land, and financial reform,'' he

said. ''Now in Russia there is no democracy. There is absolute lack of

power, chaos, and anarchy.''

He singled out Burbulis and Yegor Gaidar, chief architect of the

reform plan.

Gorbachev has always refused to resign. A spokesman denied a local

news agency report that he had signed an undated resignation decree.

But RIA quoted Gorbachev as telling the US television network ABC that

he would quit once a smooth handover from the Soviet Union to the

commonwealth had been achieved.

Although Gorbachev had defended a unitary state, he now wished the new

commonwealth well, it said, adding that he was determined to remain

active and to persuade the West to provide aid.

Meanwhile, in Kiev, Byelorussia tied elimination of nuclear weapons on

its territory to international recognition of the former Soviet republic

as an independent state.

Byelorussian leader Stanislav Shushkevich said as he posed for

photographers with US Secretary of State James Baker in Minsk:

''Byelorussia is going to be a nuclear-free zone and an independent

state.''

Shushkevich warned: ''You don't do these things in a very quick

manner. It will depend to an extent on the fact of recognition of

Byelorussia in the international arena.''

Like Yeltsin earlier this week, Shushkevich said he had appealed to

Baker for US diplomatic recognition.

Baker, who later flew to Kiev for talks with officials there, made no

public comments. But a senior US official said there was no real

connection between Byelorussia's stand on nuclear weapons and

recognition.

* Soviet television said the state airline, Aeroflot, had cancelled

many flights and stranded tens of thousands of passengers because Moscow

has only 10 days' supply of aviation fuel left.

No fuel was available in many cities and air passengers were unable to

travel to or from airports, according to the broadcast monitored by the

BBC.

It said the country's air force was ''close to its final breath''

because it lacked fuel for jets and Aeroflot had cancelled 75

flights.--Reuter.