RUSSIA

By Yuri Zarakhovich/Moscow

Before he decides whether he will run for a third term as President, BORIS YELTSIN will have to put out a political fire fueled by a book deal involving First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoli Chubais, the country's leading economic reformer. Last week it was revealed that Chubais was one of five co-authors who received $90,000 advances for a book on the history of privatization. Yeltsin promptly fired two of the writers, First Deputy Chief of Staff Alexander Kazakov and Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Boiko, and accepted the resignation of a third, Cabinet member Pyotr Mostovoi. Chubais also offered to resign, but Yeltsin, who reprimanded him, felt he was still needed to clean up the economic mess.

--By Yuri Zarakhovich/Moscow