Is Yeltsin Nuts?

[Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>]

When it comes to munitions in the hands of the mentally ill it's not crypto I'm worried about. Are you taking notes...Jeff...Janet...Louis?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/265966.asp

IN THE LATEST in a series of what the Kremlin characterizes as Òmisstatements,Ó Yeltsin abruptly stopped delivering a scripted speech to an audience of Russian writers and business leaders and launched into an attack on the NATO war against Yugoslavia.
Ê Ê Ê ÊÒJust let Clinton, a little bit, accidentally, send a missile,Ó Yeltsin said. ÒWeÕll answer immediately. We donÕt want war in Yugoslavia. We donÕt want to ... Such impudence. To unleash a war in a sovereign state without Security Council, without United Nations. It could only be possible in the time of barbarism.Ó
Ê Ê Ê ÊYeltsinÕs comments sent the Kremlin scurrying to limit damage. Kremlin aides informed Reuters, which had videotaped the speech under a media pool agreement, that distributing it could affect its participation in pool events Ñ a powerful threat in the competitive picture agency industry. Reuters had not fed images of the speech as of 1 p.m. ET Thursday, but did provide NBC News with raw footage. 
Ê Ê Ê ÊDmitri Yakushkin, YeltsinÕs press secretary, told NBC the report was being discouraged because ÒitÕs not an official comment.Ó Pressed further, he said, ÒLook, we would just rather this go away and people not use it.Ó 
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MANAGING BORIS
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Ê Ê Ê ÊSince suffering a stroke in 1996, Yeltsin has had a penchant for such statements. Several times on foreign visits, he has become confused about which country he was in. Only last week, Yeltsin thanked visiting South African President Nelson Mandela for his work bringing reconciliation to Yugoslavia. He quickly corrected himself.


Ê Ê Ê ÊLast month, the Communist Speaker of the Duma, RussiaÕs lower chamber of parliament, quoted Yeltsin as saying that Moscow was thinking about retargeting missiles on targets in the United States Ñ a comment that briefly sent a shudder through western capitals. The United States and Russia, in a move of great symbolism, Òde-targetedÓ their Cold War arsenals at the end of the 1980s.
Ê Ê Ê ÊHis Kremlin aides in recent years have kept close tabs on the president and most of his public appearances have been scripted. Requests for interviews have rarely been granted and foreign reporters who shout questions at YeltsinÕs speeches have been threatened with ejection from the coverage pools.
Ê Ê Ê ÊUntil recently, YeltsinÕs spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky would regularly stand behind the president at speeches and other events and jump in to ÒparaphraseÓ or ÒclarifyÓ when his boss appeared to be straying from the point. 
Ê Ê Ê ÊHowever, Yastrzhembsky was late last year when he publicly suggested that it might be time to consider an early transition to an interim president, throwing his support behind MoscowÕs powerful Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. 
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Ê Ê Ê ÊNBCÕs Correspondent Dana Lewis reports from Moscow.