YELTSIN ADVISER CALLS FOR DELAYING RUSSIAN ELECTIONS.

Byline: David Filipov The Boston Globe

Gen. Alexander Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin's personal security chief, Sunday called for the postponement of presidential elections that the incumbent Russian leader risks losing to a Communist candidate. Korzhakov said he was just speaking his mind and not voicing Kremlin policy.

Korzhakov, a hawkish former KGB officer who is an influential adviser and confidant of the president, said the election should be put off to avoid political strife.

``We must not think of the inevitability of elections as dogma,'' Korzhakov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. ``We should give people time to quietly think things over and come to a mature decision, to make their choice thoughtfully. For that we need more time than we have before June 16.''

Yeltsin, campaigning hard to catch up to Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov in the polls, has adamantly insisted that the June 16 vote will go ahead as planned.

Yeltsin's press secretary, Sergei Medvedev, reacted with surprise to Korzhakov's remarks and said that the official Kremlin line supporting the scheduled vote had not changed. Korzhakov's remarks were also dismissed by the chairman of Russia's Central Election Commission, Nikolai Ryabov, who told Russian NTV television that preparations for the elections were continuing as scheduled.

Zyuganov, speaking to reporters Sunday, rejected postponing the elections. ``That would be unconstitutional,'' he said. ``We are going on with our campaign.''

Reformist presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky, who met with Yeltsin Sunday, said that the subject of canceling elections had not come up.

Korzhakov's comments just six weeks before the vote were the clearest sign that some Kremlin insiders want to make sure Yeltsin does not become the first Russian leader to be voted out of office.