The Final Hour?

***THE FINAL HOUR?***

J. Adams 6/6/96 The *Spirit Of Truth* WWW Page http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~jpa94001/ "Children, it is the final hour; just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many such antichrists have appeared. This makes you certain that it is the final hour." -1 John, Chp.2; vs.18 "History is a capricious creature. It depends on who writes it." -Mikhail Gorbachev (The "Lawless One") The Russian presidential election slated for June 16th, just over a week from now, might prove to be a watershed event in human history. This is because the true ruling elite in Moscow, which I believe is the Kremlin's communist leadership-of-old (i.e., Gorbachev and his cohorts), may be planning to unleash violent chaos in Russia and, in turn, throughout the world in connection with the approaching election (or possibly elections, since, if a candidate doesn't win at least 50% of the vote in the first election, a run-off election is supposed to be held by July 15th). As explained in depth in my "Global War Articles", the odds are Moscow staged the collapse of the Soviet Union and communist world-of- old over the last decade-or-so in order to open the way for launching a surprise third world war against the West. By falsely converting to Western capitalism and democracy and then orchestrating an utter social breakdown, Russia's communist elite has prepared the way for a violent communist and nationalist backlash that will eventually involve an unprecedented use of military force against perceived Russian enemies, i.e., Israel, America and the Western allies (the supposed forces of "World Zionism"). After the dust settles, the world's destruction can be attributed to the shortcomings of Western society and Washington's failure at global leadership (nevermind some sort of "Yid-Masonic conspiracy"). Accordingly, a pretext is created for Russia's ruling elite to assume world control and establish a "New World (dis)Order"- something I believe will be a global dictatorship of man falsely labelled a "kingdom of god". So that the apocalyptic world crisis the Kremlin is planning to unleash is attributed to the vices of Western-style democracy, the upcoming Russian presidential elections might be used to set-off pandemonium in Moscow and, in turn, the world. -A Sign Of The End Time?- A tell-tale warning sign that the upcoming Russian election may be trouble comes from astrology. On June 16th, the date slated for the Russian presidential election, an ominous astrological configuration will occur. Specifically, all the inner planets, i.e., the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars, will be aligned in Gemini and opposed (180- degrees apart) by Pluto. As I explain in my article "Kremlin Astrology", there is substantial evidence that Moscow is shaping history using astrology. Just as Hitler planned his military campaigns and waged the second world war according to the stars (see Wilhelm Wulff's "Zodiac and Swastika; How Astrology Guided Hitler's Germany"), the Kremlin apparently is using astrology to guide implementation of a multi-year plan geared to mislead the West and open the way for launching a surprise third world war. Notably, the astrological configuration on June 16th involves a Mars/Pluto configuration. Mars, the planet of war, will be opposed by Pluto, the planet of nuclear energy ("pluto"nium). In the past I have mentioned how Mars/Pluto astrological configurations appear to be a Kremlin favorite- most likely because the planets signify nuclear war, the ultimate objective of Moscow's moves. Some past historical events that were associated with astrological configurations involving Mars and/or Pluto are as follows: 1. *April 24th, 1986: Total eclipse of the Moon conjunct Pluto. The following evening the Chernobyl disaster, which was likely no accident but rather a sick experiment to garner knowledge for fighting a nuclear war, occurred in the Ukraine. (Note how this configuration involved Pluto, the planet of nuclear energy.) 2. *August 2nd thru 7th, 1990: Lunar eclipse squares Mars and Pluto. In the Market Watch section of the July 16th, 1990 issue of 'Barron's', there is an excerpt from the newsletter of financial astrologer Arch Crawford. It reads in part: "...Aug. 6 (Lunar Eclipse squares Mars + Pluto). Expect some major catastrophe on that last one, Aug. 2-7, as something explodes in a big way... Astronomically similar to the Chernobyl disaster..." On August 2nd, Iraq invaded Kuwait precipitating the Persian Gulf crisis. 3. *June 26th, 1991: Lunar eclipse of lunar/solar eclipse pair. Also, Pluto was squared (90-degree angle) by an alignment of Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Marked the beginning of the civil war in Yugoslavia. 4. *October 4th, 1993: Pluto conjunct Moon squares (90-degree angle) Saturn and trines (120-degree angle) Venus, Uranus and Neptune. Political chaos erupts in Moscow following Russian President Boris Yeltsin's disbanding of the former-Soviet parliament. 5. *December 13th, 1993: Alignment of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars in Sagitarrius. Communists and Nationalists win the elections for a new Russian parliament. Of particular surprise is the success of the "Liberal Democratic Party" (?!) led by Hitler-like ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. 6. *November 18th, 1994: Lunar eclipse of solar/lunar eclipse pair. Eclipse is aligned with Pluto and Jupiter, squares (90-degree angle) Mars and trines (120-degree angle) Uranus and Neptune. Croatian Serb warplanes bomb the U.N.-protected Bihac enclave in violation of a NATO-enforced "no-fly zone". NATO responds by bombing Serb positions. This is the first major use of military force against the Serbs by NATO in the Balkan conflict and the first offensive military action ever taken by NATO in the 45-year history of the alliance. 7. *December 11th, 1994: Mars squares conjunction of Pluto & Jupiter. Russia invades the breakaway republic of Chechnya. 8. *June 14th, 1995: Mars squares alignment of Mercury, Venus and and Jupiter. Similar to configuration on December 11th, 1994 when Russia invaded Chechnya. This time, a large group of Chechen rebels attack a town in southern Russia and take several hundred patients hostage at a hospital. The incident ends violently with hundreds of Russians killed. 9. *July 12th, 1995: Alignment of Sun, Moon, Neptune and Uranus trines (120-degree angle) Mars and sextiles (60-degree angle) Saturn and Pluto. Russian President Boris Yeltsin reportedly suffers a heart attack while Bosnian Serb forces overrun the U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica. 10. *October 24th, 1995: Mars and Pluto conjunct total solar eclipse. Russian President Boris Yetsin suffers a second heart attack. 11. *November 22nd, 1995: 7-planet alignment of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Pluto in Sagitarrius. Serbs do a total about-face and reach a peace agreement with Bosnian and Croatian representatives at peace talks in Dayton, Ohio. Some 60,000 NATO troops start heading into the former-Yugoslavia to take over the peace-keeping mission from the United Nations. 12. *January 15th, 1996: Moon squares alignment of Sun, Mercury, Mars and Uranus. Russian forces storm town in southern Russia where Chechen rebels are holding hostages. 13. *February 26th, 1996: Sun conjunct Mars T-squares Pluto and the Moon, which are in opposition (180 degrees apart). Similar to configuration when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. This time a wave of terrorist bombings against Israel begin as the Arabs start to unravel the false peace that has been established in the Middle East. 14. *April 3rd, 1996: Total lunar eclipse conjunct Mercury and Mars and squared by Jupiter. North Korea pulls out of the Korean War Armistice and starts provocative armed incursions into the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. The fourteen historical events above that occurred with astrological configurations involving Mars and Pluto could be connected to the Mars/Pluto configuration that will coincide with the Russian presidential election on June 16th. As explained in my "Global War Articles", Moscow is likely planning to place a hardliner seemingly in power as part of unleashing a third world war against the West. Thus, if June 16th is associated with the demise of Boris Yeltsin and rise of a new hardline, anti-Western leader like the communist Zyuganov or nationalist Zhirinovsky, then, in connection with this, war might be set-off at key flashpoints around the world like the Caucasus (Chechnya), the Balkans (Bosnia), the Korean Peninsula, the Persian Gulf (Iraq) and the Middle East (Arab/Israeli). (Notably, late-June and early-July is a strategic time for North Korea to invade South Korea since this is the Korean monsoonal rain season, when cloud cover shrouds the Korean countryside and undermines the effectiveness of air power; U.S. and South Korean defense plans depend on using air superiority over the North to stop a surprise invasion.) In this way, the June 16th Mars/Pluto configuration will be linked to past Mars/Pluto configurations that coincided with increasing political turmoil in Russia, major events in the Chechen and Balkan conflicts, provocative moves by North Korea, the crisis in the Persian Gulf and violence in the Middle East. -Some Not-So-Subtle Hints- That some sort of trouble will erupt in association with the June 16th Russian presidential election is already being signalled from Moscow. While the Communists have warned that Yeltsin will declare a state of emergency and retain control if he loses the election, Yeltsin is warning that the Communists will throw a coup and takeover Russia by force if Zyuganov, the Communist candidate, does not win. Meanwhile, unltranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky is in the background playing the "Hitler-like" opportunist waiting in the wings to take power while the Communists and Democrats fight among themselves. The threat of trouble is apparently being taken seriously by Washington. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has been prepared for giving shelter to and subsequently evacuating thousands of U.S. nationals from Russia if a riot or civil war erupts there in association with the presidential elections. Also, Americans in Russia have received awarning from the U.S. Embassy that they should be prepared for the worst contingency after June 16. The implication of this is that Moscow has likely signalled to Western intelligence that there is going to be big trouble associated with the Russian presidential elections. For a thorough update on the situation, you may want to read through the following articles: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (Articles are for fair use only.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC Summary of World Broadcasts June 5, 1996, Wednesday "Zyuganov repeats invitation to "third force" to join government" Source: ITAR-TASS news agency (World Service), Moscow. Krasnoyarsk, 5th June: Presidential candidate from the bloc of popular-patriotic forces Gennadiy Zyuganov, who is the leader of the Russian Communist Party, reiterated on Wednesday 5th June his invitation to "the third force" leaders to join a future government if he wins the elections. On arriving in Krasnoyarsk today, he explained in an interview with ITAR-TASS that the invitation to Grigoriy Yavlinskiy, Svyatoslav Fedorov and Aleksandr Lebed is "a very serious and responsible move" . The Communist Party leader said in Novosibirsk on Tuesday for the first time that he would like to see politicians who are usually referred to "the third force" in "a people's confidence government" if he is elected head of state. Elaborating on this idea in Krasnoyarsk, Zyuganov added that "we believe that they are backed by some real forces. They have respect for their homeland and a desire to help it. We would like nobody to suspect us of working single-handed. If they are against the present course, we are ready to pool our efforts." Zyuganov specified that the invitation is addressed not only to the three presidential candidates. He would like to see Stanislav Govorukhin (prominent film director in the past and ardent politician now) and Sergey Glazyev (close aide of Lebed) among members of "a people's confidence cabinet". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsday June 5, 1996 "THE RUSSIAN ELECTION / THE NEW RICH TYCOONS VOW FIGHT IF COMMUNISTS THREATEN FREE MARKET" By Susan Sachs Yekaterinburg, Russia - Valery Yazev, post-communist success story, is a big, redheaded man who owns mines, real estate, an insurance company, a weekly newspaper, a private jet and the ultimate in big- shot extravagance: a full-scale replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. His armada of stores sell frozen American chickens and Japanese electronics. He sponsors churches, dance troupes, 18 of Russia's Olympic athletes and an international sailboat regatta named for his company, Yava. When his daughter graduates from college this year, she won't look for work: Dad will present her with her very own German- equipped environmental research lab. Just one thing might spoil Yazev's comfortable habitat. If the Communists come to power after the June 16 presidential elections and try to reverse free-market reforms, the 46-year-old Yazev vows to defend his $150-million dominion with guns and tanks. "I am not going to sit with folded hands," he said with a smile, presiding over his realm from behind a bank of fax machines, phones, security monitors and computers. "I've got enough money to supply an armored unit - maybe even a battalion - and I will protect what's mine." It's no idle threat. Russia's capitalists - maligned as free- spending "New Russians" by many - are squirming these days, attacked by anti-reform presidential candidates as exploiters of the working class. While most Russians saw their standard of living plummet during the unsteady transition to a market economy, a relative handful got rich from their own entrepreneurship or through the free-wheeling privatization of state companies. In a society that was taught to regard business as unsavory, the Communist and conservative election-time attacks on rich people as inherently dishonest strikes a chord. "Without a doubt," Yazev acknowledged, "there are bad aspects of perestroika, such as the rapid impoverishment of some people and the rapid enrichment of others . . . But I want everyone to be rich. I need my people to make money, to go to stores and buy, to pay taxes and thus to solve the social question. So I will try to get richer, to create new jobs." For more than 400 years, the vast forests and mountains of Russia's Urals region have produced brawny men like Yazev, industrialists and merchants who parlayed political favors and access to the region's mineral wealth into eccentric personal empires. Rich from gold and copper concessions, they built theaters and schools and fanciful mansions painted in sherbet colors of peach, lemon and mint that still stand in Yekaterinburg. One legendary figure - the 17th Century mining millionaire who ordered up the Leaning Tower that Yazev now owns - even printed his own money in defiance of Russian imperial administrators. Not so long ago, such men were denounced in Communist schoolbooks as robber barons, leeches and exploiters. There were rich people in the old Soviet Union, of course, but they were the Communist Party nomenklatura. That old-fashioned capitalist way of making money - through business and property speculation - was deemed to be criminal. Now Russia's new millionaires are reviving old traditions. Adapting themselves to capitalism and profiting from the wholesale sell-off of state industries during the past five years, they have turned their attention to getting President Boris Yeltsin re-elected. For Yazev, who had a jump-start in business through a road-building contract from the gas distribution company where he once worked, that means contributing heavily in time and money to the Yeltsin campaign. He is also working to make sure his 2,500 employees and their families are not tempted by the utopian promises of Communist Party candidate Gennady Zyuganov. "Politics is the art of compromise, but compromise with the Communist Party is impossible," he said. "Its ideas are completely the opposite of ours." The Sverdlovsk region, as it is formally called, is the provincial center of Russia's new rich. In December's national elections for the lower house of parliament, it split its votes almost evenly between pro-democracy parties and various right-wing groups. The Communist Party won only 8.4 percent of the vote, one of its lowest scores in the country. As in other parts of Russia, however, Yeltsin's economic reforms have hit hard at the less fortunate and less adaptable. Sverdlovsk is home to many military-related industries. Yekaterinburg itself was a closed city until a few years ago and the area around it is dotted with once-secret centers that were never on any map, places accessible only by special pass where nuclear weapons and other armaments were produced. The scientists there always lived better than other Soviet citizens, with better consumer goods and generous bonuses, so their financial collapse is all the more dramatic. These industries now struggle to keep afloat. Zyuganov advocates giving them massive state subsidies and renationalizing oil and gas production to force down their energy costs. Though production has sagged and unemployment soared at defense plants, these workers and perhaps others like them around the country are not necessarily going to vote for a return to the pampered days of Communism. "These plants had many scientific intellectuals," Stanislav Solomatov, economics editor of Oblastnaya Gazeta newspaper. "They are willing to put up with anything as long as there's democracy." And just to make sure no one forgets what the average person's daily life was like under the old Soviet state-command system of economics, a Yekaterinburg museum has just opened an exhibit of political memorabilia. Its main feature: a room plastered with Soviet ration cards from 1919 to 1992 - one for macaroni, one for flour, one for soap, one for four bottles of beer, and so on. It infuriates some of the new millionaires that other Russians believe a return to Communism will make their lives better. "Come to a gathering of Communists and listen to them," fumed Malik Gaisin, who bought up blocs of shares in 110 formerly state-run companies. "These are rabid people who can't say anything quietly. They can only scream at other people. We've already gone through all of this. Communism is communism. Fascism is fascism. It is what it is and you should not have any illusions." The son of workers - his father was a welder, his mother a factory hand - Gaisin made his startup money during the free-wheeling corruption of the 1970s, when Soviet authorities encouraged semi- private trading. Gaisen said he "climbed under the roof of collective farms and used them as a bank account," cutting down the farms' trees for wood to make tools, selling the tools in the name of the collective and taking 40 percent as his "salary." He has little love for Yeltsin - he thinks the president's war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya is unjust - but far less for the resurgent Communists. "From the age of 18, I worked," Gaisin said. "I worked like a mule while some people were showing up at work for eight hours, doing nothing, then going home to lie on their couches and read newspapers, thinking of life and drinking vodka. "When privatization began we were all on the same level. Any Russian and any foreigner had the opportunity to participate," he added. "I took the risks. And now if some person or agency begins to take it away I'm going to defend it with weapons. You can put an army together with no trouble. I got my fortune legally. And I'm going to keep it." Yeltsin himself got his start in Yekaterinburg, where he was the local Communist Party boss for many years. In the 1990 elections to the then-Soviet parliament, the city gave Yeltsin more than 80 percent of its votes. Today, Yeltsin's former fiefdom has an air of confidence and smug prosperity that is rare in the Russian hinterlands. Eduard Rossel, one of the few elected regional governors, has built a political machine of his own and a reputation, again impossible in the years of centralized state control, as a maverick. Like the city's entrepreneurs and a handful of other governors, he capitalized on the post-Soviet free-for-all and negotiated a bilateral treaty with Moscow that gives his local government unprecedented independence. Rossel is not entirely pleased with the Yeltsin economic record. He talks of renationalizing some of Sverdlovsk's major factories and then re-privatizing them with stronger government-enforced protections for workers - what he calls "humane privatization." Like the Communists, he also advocates further protection for Russian producers from foreign imports. But Rossel is typical of many regional leaders who squarely back Yeltsin's re-election bid, in large part because Zyuganov has made it clear that he wants to rein in such independent regions and investigate how their wealthiest citizens acquired their fortunes. For many new capitalists, such talk means just one thing: a return to the centralized command economy in which the rich are assumed to be criminals. "In a regime of slaves, people are taken care of and fed and protected. In return they must do what they are told to do," said Eduard Batyushev, 55, head of the local gas company, Urals Transgaz. "In another kind of regime, a person earns his own money, finds his own food and makes his own decisions. You in America have chosen the second regime. We'd like to be free also." As the director of the company before it was privatized, Batyushev received a hefty share of stock in the gas company. He is now a rich man. But personal wealth is not the issue, he said. "You can't reconcile the bloody past with the normal market future," said Batyushev. Although Russia's economic transition has been accompanied by what he called "criminal deviations," turning back means "civil war." "The redistribution of property is already under way. We can argue that mistakes were made, that it's not balanced, that property was divided improperly, but the first division has already taken place, and if you try to take it back, this will end with blood," he said. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC Summary of World Broadcasts June 4, 1996, Tuesday "Communists active in armed forces, says TV." Source: Russia TV channel, Moscow. Now that the elections are upon us, the president is paying a great deal of attention to the armed forces. He has serious reasons for doing this. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation CPRF adopted a decision setting up the Central Committee' s military committee at a closed plenum in December 1995. The military committee's aim is to conduct campaign and propaganda work in support of Gennadiy Zyuganov and to set up CPRF cells in military units, institutions and military educational establishments. Reserve Lt-Gen Mikhail Surkov, formerly chairman of the armed forces' CPSU committee and now deputy chairman of the State Duma Defence Committee is the head of the military committee. The committee sittings are on Wednesdays, as a rule, starting at 1600 hours. They are held in Surkov's office or the CPRF parliamentary party premises. Among the military committee's members are generals Vladislav Achalov, Lt-Gen Albert Makashov, Army General Valentin Varennikov and others. Former Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoy has recently joined in their work. They hold personal meetings and telephone conversations with their former service colleagues and students at the General Staff academy, fairly high up the army hierarchy, to persuade them to back Gennadiy Andreyevich Zyuganov. According to our information, the CPRF has cells in practically every army establishment, and these cells are working actively. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Moscow Times May 31, 1996 "Yeltsin Aide Says Reds Plan 'Seizure Of Power'." By Jonas Bernstein Less than three weeks before the presidential election, a top adviser to President Boris Yeltsin warned Thursday that the Communist Party is preparing an "illegitimate seizure of power" that could force the Kremlin to declare a state of emergency. Georgy Satarov, the president's aide on political questions, made his comments at a press conference organized by the Yeltsin election campaign and appeared to continue a strategy of frightening voters into support for the president. The conference was devoted to the theme: "The Communists are preparing Russia for civil war. " "For a while, the (Communist Party) froze their fighting units. But the finger is now on the trigger and at a given moment the trigger will be pulled," Satarov said. Satarov said the communists and Zyuganov's "people's patriotic coalition" are trying to convince the public that a Yeltsin victory can only be the result of cheating by the federal authorities. This, he said, could lead to a contested vote and, ultimately, to a confrontation between the authorities and communist "fighting units." Most observers of Russia's previous elections believe there has been fraud, but to what extent and by whom remains a matter of controversy. The communists have for some time been warning voters that Yeltsin's camp would steal the election because they cannot win it. Satarov on Thursday appeared to be firing back, and his comments were duly dismissed by a Communist Party representative. "These are the same people who prepared the disinformation campaign about our economic program," said spokeswoman Irina Makayeva. The Communist Party, she added, keeps no "fighting units." "If there is a falsification, we would sort that out only through the courts, by protesting the elections," she said. Newspapers sympathetic to the communists and Commu places with 200,000 observers, who plan to carry out a parallel vote count. According to Satarov, Zyuganov's campaign has bragged that it will have the results of the vote before the Central Election Commission. Satarov said such a parallel vote count would lead to a "confrontation." He also charged that Zyuganov's campaign plans to "flood" polling stations with observers. "In the disorder thereby created, it will be easier for them to falsify results," he said. In the event of a Yeltsin victory, said Satarov, "a campaign that the results were falsified will begin." According to his scenario, the Communists will then publish the results of their vote count and each of the opposing sides will swear in their candidate as president. The next stage, he said, could be a violent confrontation. Satarov claimed that Zyuganov and his supporters recently began to realize that their chances for a legitimate victory in the June 16 vote "is slipping through their hands." He added that at a closed plenum earlier this month, decided that "it is time to dispense with democratic methods." "The possible course of events looks as follows: The (Communist) fighting units are brought out not after the elections, but before the elections," he said. But the parliamentary uprising of October 1993, said Satarov, showed that the law enforcement organs "aren't always effective in such situations," and the authorities may be "forced to declare a state of emergency." One analyst said Satarov's scenario has some plausibility. "My impression is that the Communists are preparing for a decisive fight for power, using both legal and illegal methods," said Viktor Kremenyuk of the Russian Academy of Sciences' USA/Canada Institute. Kremenyuk said that while one wing of the party believes it can win by the rules and wants to abide by them, another, including people such as Working Russia party leader Viktor Anpilov, "don't care about that." Another observer, however, said that either Satarov was just indulging in some purple campaign rhetoric or the Kremlin is keeping open the possibility of declaring the elections invalid. "I don't think there is any serious evidence that the Communists are preparing a civil war," said Andrei Kortunov of the Russian Science Foundation. "They still think they can win, so why should they do that in an unconstitutional way?" - Matt Bivens contributed to this report. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Russian Press Digest May 24, 1996 "Americans Ready For Worst Contingency." By Konstantin Katanyan Source: NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA Hoping for Yeltsin's victory, U.S. is ready to evacuate its nationals from Russia in case of Communist comeback, Russian expatriate asserts. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is fully prepared for giving shelter to and subsequently evacuating thousands of U.S. nationals from Russia if a riot or civil war erupts there after the presidential elections, Russian expatriate and U.S. citizen Efroim Sevela told a gathering of Moscow lawyers on May 22, NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA writes. (Sevela, a noted author and film director, emigrated to Israel in the '70s, naturalized in the U.S., and has regularly visited Moscow since 1988.) Sevela said that like all U.S. nationals in Russia, he received a warning from the U.S. Embassy that he should be prepared for the worst contingency after June 16. The Embassy's instructions are as follows: at the first sounds of shots in the street, every U.S. citizen should pick up his identification papers and cash, put on warm clothes, and rush for the Embassy. He should not use his own car or a municipal cab but take a ride by a private car or public transport. The U.S. Embassy guarantees all refugees a "shelter on its territory" and an "organized evacuation outside of Russia," the paper quotes Sevela as saying. Sevela went to the Embassy to see with his own eyes if it was ready to accommodate the refugees. "I was allowed to come down to the building's basement where I saw ranks of two-tier bunks and a stock of water and foodstuffs for the U.S. citizens ›who will be| waiting for their turn to be evacuated abroad," he told the audience. Many of those who heard Sevela's story believe that the American diplomats' apprehensions are well-grounded. They think that two tragic scenarios are possible if Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov wins the elections. If power devolves to the Communists, the armed clashes may be triggered by their attempts to re-nationalize property. On the other hand, blood may be spilled by Boris Yeltsin, if he declines to surrender his powers and resorts to force to crush the resistance of the "irreconcilable opposition," NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA speculates. Anyway the American Embassy in Moscow has dutifully fulfilled the State Department's directive about warning all U.S. citizens in Russia about all possible results of elections in good time, the paper says. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rocky Mountain News May 21, 1996, Tuesday "Rumors infect Russian election; Wild stories run amok among electorate as presidential vote nears." By Deborah Seward Want to book a ticket overseas on Aeroflot after Russia's June 16 election? Rumor has it the airline's not taking any reservations, saving its seats for Boris Yeltsin's cronies in case of a victory by his Communist rival. Of course, Aeroflot is taking reservations for July. But as the presidential election nears, Russia is awash in rumors, some of them hard to disprove. They're fueling apocalyptic - and often compelling - scenarios of imminent unrest, coups or even civil war. With rumors circulating that the Communists intend to confiscate private property and restrict foreign travel, lines at passport offices are swollen. So are the lines in front of Western embassies for visas. One popular rumor is that a Swiss passport can be had for $ 200,000, a pittance for some Russian businessmen. Rumors play as much part as reality in Russian politics. It's not surprising in a country where propaganda was a way of life for decades and where campaign tactics blur fact and fiction. Both Yeltsin and his Communist rival, Gennady Zyuganov, are trying to win by instilling fear. ''Rumors have existed throughout Russia's 1,000-year history,'' said analyst Alexei Pankin of the European Institute for the Media. ''This time, everybody knows that Yeltsin doesn't want to give up power and that he is capable of doing anything to keep it. That's the main reason for all these rumors.'' One of Yeltsin's main campaign themes has been been a ''red scare,'' warning Russians that money will be tighter and freedom of travel and speech will vanish if the Communists come to power. Hardly a day goes by without some kind of fantastic story in the media about one or another of the candidates, the kind of reporting that borders on disinformation - and sometimes really is. Then there are the personal rumors, which could swing the polls a few points either way. One of the most common to appear in the right-wing press is that Yeltsin and his wife, Naina, are of Jewish heritage. The not-so-subtle hint: Vote for Zyuganov, because he and his wife are ''real'' Russians. The uncertainty of polling data in Russia has fueled many rumors that Yeltsin will steal the vote - at any price. The rumors have fed a series of doomsday scenarios, and there are at least as many of them as there are candidates. Among the most dramatic: * Yeltsin gets cold feet and cancels the election altogether, a move recommended by his influential bodyguard, Gen. Alexander Korzhakov, who said this month the vote should be put off to avoid bloodshed. * Yeltsin visits the secessionist republic of Chechnya. Russian troops slightly wound him and blame it on the Chechen rebels. His popularity soars. * Yeltsin loses the first round of the elections and cancels the second round between the two highest vote-getters. He declares rule by presidential decree. * Yeltsin declares the election invalid. He dissolves the Communist Party. * Yeltsin loses the second round of the elections. There is a coup. * Zyuganov wins; the economic situation worsens; civil war breaks out. Others are less dramatic but still compelling: * Yeltsin wins, dissolves the pro-Communist Duma and calls new parliamentary elections. * Yeltsin wins, democracy survives, market reforms proceed and stocks soar. Take that last one back. That rumor hasn't made the rounds yet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Des Moines Register May 17, 1996, Friday "Ally with anti-Communists, Zhirinovsky advises Yeltsin." Moscow, Russia An ultranationalist leader urged President Boris Yeltsin on Thursday to form a broad anti-Communist alliance or face civil war. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is also running for president, said Yeltsin stands no chance of beating Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov in the June 16 vote unless he allies with other candidates. "To avoid violence and blood, a broad coalition must be formed," he said, suggesting that Yeltsin give government posts to other non- Communist challengers in exchange for their support. Polls show Yeltsin and Zyuganov running neck and neck. The other nine contenders trail far behind. Zhirinovsky gave no indication he is willing to support Yeltsin at this stage. The president has been reluctant to seek an alliance with the flamboyant and often unruly ultranationalist, preferring pro- reform or centrist candidates. He has met with three - liberal economist Grigory Yavlinsky, retired Gen. Alexander Lebed and eye surgeon Svyatoslav Fyodorov - but no coalition has been announced. After meeting with Fyodorov Wednesday, Yeltsin said he would consider the doctor's proposal of forming a national unity government, including members of all leading parties, including Communists. The Communists' campaign organizer, Valentin Kuptsov, said Thursday that Fyodorov's plan was "quite reasonable." Kuptsov's statement appeared aimed at quelling fears of violence if the Communists win. In other election developments Thursday: Making good on a promise, Yeltsin signed a decree providing gradual compensation to Russians who lost their savings to inflation in the years of radical economic reforms. The first compensations will be only to people 80 and older. Yeltsin also signed a decree saying the Russian military will become a volunteer force by the year 2000, ending conscription, which is deeply unpopular. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Agence France Presse May 16, 1996 "Communist chief in Yeltsin heartland talks of Kremlin coup." By Paola Messana Russian Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov took his presidential campaign to President Boris Yeltsin's home town Yekaterinburg on Thursday, and claimed that there was almost a Kremlin coup in March. Zyuganov, who has recently slipped slightly behind Yeltsin in opinion polls ahead of the June 16 vote, talked darkly of a Kremlin plot to grab power on March 17 that he said Yeltsin had to abandon at the last minute. According to Zyuganov, the lower house of parliament was "occupied for 24 hours by the special forces on a bomb scare pretext, and Yeltsin presented his ministers with three decrees" -- dissolving the Duma, declaring a state of emergency, cancelling the presidential election. The alleged plot failed because "all the ministers except one refused" to go along with the plan, he told a rally, after laying roses at the foot of a statue of Lenin. Zyuganov offered no proof, but his spokesman Mikhail Molodtsov said the information came "from a source close to these ministers." The disagreement came about because one minister warned Russia would slip into civil war and another that the army would refuse to back Yeltsin's power grab, Zyuganov said. The Duma seizure was a set up, Zyuganov said: "There was no bomb, just the start of the plan. After his ministers refused to go along, Yeltsin was forced to step back, but that is why I'm not sure whether these presidential elections will take place." There has been much speculation in Moscow about whether Yeltsin would cancel the elections to avoid being defeated. Recently, Kremlin security chief Alexander Korzhakov said he would like the vote delayed, but his comments had no support from Yeltsin. Zyuganov said "the last 10 days of May will decide" whether the poll goes ahead as planned or not. The Communist Party says that Yeltsin is manipulating the media and said that a document detailing the party's allegedly hardline leftist economic polices, published this week by the popular Komsomolskaya Pravada, was a fake. "It did not even have a signature. We have a programme approved by the party which is available to all, but has been published by no newspaper," he said. Zyuganov provoked a mixed reaction in the town where Yeltsin grew up and started his career in the Soviet Communist Party, before quitting and becoming the first democratically elected president of Russia. One resident, 23-year-old Vladislav, said he would vote Zyuganov "because we need to put order into the country." Before leaving, Zyuganov drove by, but did not stop, a memorial cross marking the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in the communist revolution. ----------------------------------------------------------------------