WITH President Yeltsin expected to resume his full duties by the end of the year, there is still time for a final bout of political infighting in the Kremlin. Sunday's gangland massacre in a Moscow cemetery is a card which could be played against the Interior Minister, Gen Anatoly Kulikov, by his former associates.
The death toll from the bomb at Kotlyakovskoye cemetery has now risen to 14 after police pieced together the body of another victim. Ten others including a young boy whose eye has had to be removed, are still in a "grave condition", according to the authorities.
On Sunday evening, the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, went on television to condemn the gangland explosion the worst in Russia's violent modern history, as a "terrorist act". Mr Yeltsin, from his hospital bed, used the same expression.
All this was bad news, not only for the friends and relatives of the victims, but also for Gen Kulikov whose job it is to prevent "terrorist acts" from taking place.
The Interior Minister was instrumental in removing the charismatic security chief, Gen Alexander Lebed, from his post three weeks ago and observers now believe he has served his purpose and is "expendable".
There may also be moves against Mr Chernomyrdin and against the powerful Kremlin Chief of Staff, Mr Anatoly Chubais, who has been described as the "regent" of Russia during Mr Yeltsin's illness.
In a rare attack on Mr Chernomyrdin, the US-based Swedish economist, Mr Anders Aslund, who is close to Mr Chubais's views on how Russia should be run, has described, the Prime Minister as a "passive leader whose policies could lead to economic collapse.
Writing in the local English-language newspaper, the Moscow Times, Mr Aslund said Mr Chernomyrdin wanted a weak government that he could dominate.
The popular and powerful Mayor of Moscow, Mr Yuri Luzhkov, on a visit to St Petersburg on Monday, described Mr Chubais's reforms as an "economic disaster" and pointed out that Moscow had done better than any other part of Russia because it followed its own path.
But Mr Chubais has powerful supporters among the seven men who are believed to control 50 per cent of Russia's wealth. Most prominent among these is Mr Boris Berezovsky, a car dealer, oil baron and media magnate who has been appointed deputy head of the Russian Security Council.
Mr Berezovsky who, according to Izvestiya, is an Israeli citizen, told the Financial Times that he and the other members of the "big seven" joined forces to get Mr Yeltsin re-elected. In 1995, Mr Berezovsky replaced Mr Vladislav Listiev as a director of the national TV channel, ORT, shortly after the latter had been murdered.
The other six men are all connected with the banking industry, which has lost more members through contract killings than any other sphere of Russian business.
