Russia Will Not Be Drawn Into Conflict, Yeltsin Says

MOSCOW â€”  President Boris N. Yeltsin declared Tuesday that Russia will not be pulled into fighting on the side of its Slavic ally Yugoslavia against NATO.

Delivering his annual state of the nation address, an unusually vigorous Yeltsin warned that Russia should not be regarded by the world as a “second-rate� power. He added that warfare would not solve the divisive problems of the Balkans.

“More and more political leaders understand that in such situations force does not solve anything,� Yeltsin said in his speech to both houses of parliament at the Kremlin. “Russia has made its choice. It will not allow itself to be drawn into a military conflict.�

Yeltsin, who has been hospitalized much of the year with a bleeding ulcer, gave one of his strongest performances in months, delivering his 18-minute speech in a firm, clear voice. To read his prepared text, he wore the new eyeglasses he first began wearing in public last week.

Yeltsin noted that he had dispatched his prime minister, Yevgeny M. Primakov, to Belgrade to meet with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Primakov said later that Milosevic was prepared to pull back his forces from Kosovo province and let ethnic Albanian refugees return once NATO airstrikes stop, but that appeared to reflect little change in Belgrade’s position.

On domestic issues, Yeltsin’s address offered no new proposals for solving Russia’s debilitating economic problems. Members of parliament, who have opposed the president at every turn, did not miss an opportunity to blast him again.

Yeltsin is “completely unable to honestly and intelligently respond to [real] life problems,� charged Communist Party chief Gennady A. Zyuganov, who is leading an effort to oust Yeltsin. “It’s evident to everyone that impeachment is unavoidable.�

Political analysts said Yeltsin’s address, which is required by the constitution, was devoid of any long-term value and would quickly be forgotten. At the same time, they said it was Yeltsin’s best performance in many months.

“Yeltsin was definitely in his top form today, and you can tell how thoroughly he must have been prepared for it,� said Andranik M. Migranyan, vice president of the Reforma Fund, a Moscow think tank. “Technically, he must give his state of the union address in January. It was postponed till the end of March so the president could reach the proper shape for it.�

In the address, Yeltsin acknowledged that Russia’s struggling economy and social divisions had reduced its ability to influence international events.

“Our weight in the world arena depends on how we solve our problems at home,� he said. “This means we need order in government, accord in society, stability in the economy and in the social sphere.�

Yeltsin said the country was stuck half way in its transition between a command economy and a market economy, and called on the Russian people to improve their economic competitiveness.

“We’ve created a freakish model, a hybrid between the two systems,� he said.

While praising Primakov by name, Yeltsin took advantage of the prime minister’s absence to criticize his 6-month-old government and suggest that it was moving too slowly in improving the economy.

“A major achievement of these months has been that we have not started sliding down dramatically,� Yeltsin said in a backhanded compliment. “And this is obviously to the credit of Yevgeny Maximovich Primakov.�

There were other subtle digs at Primakov, who has increasingly become a rival to Yeltsin as the prime minister consolidates his control over the government.

Yeltsin criticized Primakov’s idea that regional governors should be appointed, not elected. He also took exception to Primakov’s efforts to exert greater control over the media.

Yeltsin called for giving Russia’s regions greater autonomy and promised that he will hold “clean and honest� elections for parliament and the presidency over the next 16 months.

The president placed much of the responsibility for Russia’s predicament on the Communist-dominated Duma, the lower house of parliament, which has resisted many of the economic programs pushed by free-market advocates in Yeltsin’s earlier governments.