Beleaguered Boris

NEVER A MAN FOR SELF-EFFACEMENT, BORIS YELTSIN concluded last week's signing of the START II treaty by pronouncing it the "document of the century." He then seized the hand of George ("my friend") Bush and began squeezing as if he were trying to wring out a wet dishrag. The gesture was an appropriate one: increasingly beleaguered by a devilish array of domestic problems, the Russian President must twist every drop of prestige he can from his foreign triumphs. Yet not even the acclaim of history's most extensive cutback in nuclear missiles could compensate for an economy tailspinning into chaos. According to the latest figures, Russian productivity plummeted 24% in the past year even as prices surged 2000%.

The disaster has prompted an effort to control the price of essential food items such as bread, milk and vodka -- a beverage that many Russians prefer to view, and imbibe, as a staple. In a move denounced by some as antireform, Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin attacked hyperinflation by declaring a cap on manufacturers' profits on basic goods. Regressive or not, it had better work fast, or Yeltsin may find himself emerging from April's referendum with his presidential powers drastically curtailed -- and with no hands to wring but his own.