MOSCOW -- Russian leaders gave final approval to a political truce yesterday but, without taking the time to dust themselves off, immediately resumed some of the nastiest, dirtiest fighting in recent memory.

The blows being struck are so underhanded and the logic behind them so obscure and Byzantine that the battle should be amusing to watch -- except that Russia is in serious financial straits and has been earnestly trying to present itself to the International Monetary Fund as a chastened scofflaw that can now be trusted with billions more dollars in loans.

The spectacle confirms for the ordinary citizen that his cynicism has not been misplaced and that the nation's highest leaders are more interested in the struggle for power than in operating a government that might serve the people.

"It's quite a soap opera," said Yegor Stroyev, chairman of the Federation Council, parliament's upper house, which had just approved a formal truce that was supposed to end the intense fighting between the president, the government and parliament.

The first threads of the drama emerged last month when the nation's chief prosecutor, Yuri Skuratov, informed parliament that the Central Bank had secretly channeled $50 billion in reserves through an offshore account.

The dramatic tension heightened when Skuratov sent investigators into a company associated with Boris A. Berezovsky, a financial oligarch close to the Yeltsin family. Newspapers were full of reports that tapes were found that showed Berezovsky was bugging compromising Kremlin conversations of President Boris N. Yeltsin and his family.

Other reports implicated Berezovsky in a scam that reportedly was bleeding huge amounts of cash from Aeroflot, the Russian international airline, in which he has a large stake.

Next thing anyone knew, Skuratov was handing in his resignation, complaining of ill health. He then disappeared for more than a month.

Yeltsin abruptly, and reportedly unwillingly, ordered his friend Berezovsky fired from his job as secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

And so it went.

Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov was leading an intrigue against Berezovsky, the rumors said. Yeltsin was ready to dismiss Primakov. Primakov was belittling Yeltsin. The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, was fighting the Kremlin for control of the prosecutor's office.

In the last few weeks, newspaper articles and television reports have accused just about everyone of everything, without offering any proof and usually quoting unnamed sources.

Only the Federation Council can accept the general prosecutor's resignation, and Yeltsin asked it to do so. The upper house, made up of regional governors and heads of regional legislatures, kept insisting it wanted to hear from Skuratov first.

Last week, Skuratov mysteriously reappeared at his office as if nothing had ever happened. He promised to appear before the Federation Council yesterday.

All day Tuesday, the Federation Council appeared ready to accept Skuratov's resignation. But Tuesday night, all the television networks received a videotape, which they said was too scandalous to broadcast but purportedly showed Skuratov cavorting with a prostitute.

And yesterday, the council began to get indignant. Its members, usually deferential to Yeltsin, started to balk.

"Shall we vote for the continuation of the criminal situation here," demanded Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, "or for the law?"

No one mentioned that in more than three years on the job, Skuratov has yet to convict any high-level official of corruption and has yet to solve one of a long string of notorious political murders.

Skuratov implied that he had resigned because law enforcement and other officials were attempting to interfere with his crusade against corruption.

"All this dirt and claims of my imminent resignation exacerbated the already tense and nervous situation around me," Skuratov said yesterday. "Finally, they used information concerning my private life, obtained illegally, in order to finish me."

The council furiously rejected Skuratov's resignation in a 142-6 vote.

"I'm glad that the compromising material didn't work," said Vladimir Semago, a member of the Duma. "At least we are not like America, such things don't work here."

The Communist politician also gave a political assessment that was widely accepted yesterday. "This was a move against the Kremlin," he said.

A new political war was on. And many commentators expect it will intensify with the approach of presidential elections next year.

Meanwhile, business continued as usual. Yeltsin and Primakov issued a statement again demanding Skuratov's resignation. A Duma committee was finishing up impeachment charges against Yeltsin.

And Stroyev was congratulating his council colleagues on the peace agreement adopted by the government and parliament. "I am sincerely satisfied with the fact that we voted for consensus among all branches of government," he said, touting the truce as if it had not already been broken.

Pub Date: 3/18/99