LOOKING fitter than usual, President Yeltsin took the Russian election campaign to Norway for a state visit whose schedule consists mainly of visits with that country's king and queen events which will provide plenty of favourable and soft TV coverage at home.
Of the talks he is to have with Norwegian government leaders he said. "We will discuss why Nato is pushing to the east and with what aims. That is the main thing."
Speaking on his arrival in Oslo, he also said. "I very much hope that Norway and the Norwegian leadership will express their views on this. It (Nato) is after all a collective organisation."
Before leaving Moscow's Vnukovo 2 airport, reserved as in communist times for high officials, Mr Yeltsin said that he would announce details of his peace plan for Chechnya in a nationwide television broadcast next weekend and poured cold water on suggestions that a full scale merger between Russia and Belarus was in the offing.
Mr Yeltsin still lies far behind the Communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, in the opinion polls for the election on June 16th but there are indications that he is gaining ground.
His support has risen from 11 per cent in February to 15 per cent in the latest poll, while Mr Zyuganov's support has risen from 24 per cent to 25 per cent. Challenges from other candidates, such as the democratic reforming economics minister Mr Grigory Yavlinksy, and the ultra right wing Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky appear unlikely to make inroads on the two leading contenders.
Observers now believe that a motion in the Communist led State Duma, which declared the break up of the Soviet Union to be illegal, may have rebounded on Mr Zyuganov who, they believe, is likely to lose further support in the coming weeks.
At Vnukovo yesterday, Mr Yeltsin scotched rumours of an imminent merger between Russia and Belarus. The rumours had led to a major protest demonstration in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, on Sunday. Contradicting President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, who forecast a union treaty between the two former Soviet republics on April 2nd, Mr Yeltsin spoke in terms of an economic rather than political agreement over a much longer time scale.
By doing so, he distanced himself from the negative reaction to the Communists' moves towards a renewal of the USSR. But he is likely to follow his opponents lead in other areas and sources here believe he will take a very tough anti Nato stance during his visit to Norway.
The announcement of his peace plan for Chechnya will be eagerly awaited by most Russians who blame Mr Yeltsin for the disastrous military intervention in the region almost 11/2 years ago. Whether the plan is designed to bring about a real peace, or is simply an election tactic, remains to be seen.
