Still time for Yeltsin

With his health in doubt, the war in Chechnya flaring and the Russian economy at a critical juncture, Boris Yeltsin begins his second term as president on Friday with diminished expectations. Even the opulent inaugural ceremony once planned for the Kremlin's Cathedral Square has been scaled back and moved inside to reduce the strain on the ailing Yeltsin, who will apparently begin his new term by taking a long rest.

It is not the vibrant, hopeful start that should have followed his decisive election victory over the communist candidate, Gennady Zyuganov. But Yeltsin and his countrymen can still move ahead with economic and political reform if the second Yeltsin administration is more disciplined and consistent than the first.

The first step should be candor about Yeltsin's health. All the dodging and dissembling about his condition have only fanned fears that he is suffering much more than a bad case of fatigue. Given his history of heart ailments, he may be a candidate for bypass surgery. With capable aides like Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin to run the government, Yeltsin should level with the Russian people about his health and get the treatment he needs, even if that means temporarily turning power over to the prime minister.

The Chechen secession crisis, boiling again, must be settled expeditiously and permanently. The peace agreement Yeltsin reached with Chechen fighters in May quelled combat briefly, but a new rebel offensive this week re-ignited the war. The conflict has already cost 30,000 lives and depleted the Russian treasury and Yeltsin's credibility.

The war will not end until the Russian government and the rebels negotiate a comprehensive political settlement rather than the kind of slapdash agreement they threw together this spring. Moscow's offer of autonomy just short of independence is the best deal the Chechen rebels can get, and they should take it before their homeland is destroyed.

Russians made clear by their votes that they favor continuation of the economic reforms begun by Yeltsin, but want them managed in a more humane and evenhanded way. The president's extravagant campaign promises of Government assistance to workers, businesses and communities cannot be fully honored without dangerously increasing the budget deficit, but some effort is needed to soften the impact of reform, particularly for elderly citizens with fixed incomes.

Yeltsin must attend to an inefficient and corrupt tax system that by some estimates collects half the money tax rates should produce. His government should also devise a fairer system for transferring state property to private hands, eliminating the windfall gains that have gone to a few businessmen with friends in the Kremlin.

Chernomyrdin and Anatoly Chubais, Yeltsin's new chief of staff, are committed to reform. If they assemble a cabinet of like-minded leaders, Yeltsin's second term can avoid some of the zigzagging that hurt the first. Cooperation from Parliament would help. The Communists and nationalists who control the legislature have a legitimate role to play in opposition, but they will harm the country if they try to cripple the government.

Russians would be much relieved if the former general Alexander Lebed used his new position as Yeltsin's top security aide to combat crime, the affliction of post-communist Russia. Lebed must check his own authoritarian instincts and be careful that a crackdown on crime does not extinguish Russia's newly won civil liberties.

In planning Friday's ceremony, the government looked for symbols of majesty and power it could borrow from the coronations of the czars. At this point, the world would be relieved just to see Yeltsin standing without assistance.

-- The New York Times