Yeltsin Unexpectedly Takes 12-Day Vacation

MOSCOW — On the eve of a crucial negotiating session with his most powerful opponent, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Monday unexpectedly left Moscow for what his press secretary said will be a 12-day winter vacation.

Yeltsin is staying in a country home outside the Russian capital, members of his entourage said. So the meeting scheduled today with legislative Chairman Ruslan I. Khasbulatov could conceivably go ahead.

But the disappearing act was only the latest instance of Yeltsin’s vanishing from the Kremlin at critical junctures. It came as conservative opponents, including Khasbulatov himself, renewed their onslaught on Yeltsin’s authority and fitness to govern.

Showing signs of conciliation or political weakness, Yeltsin has indicated he is ready to back out of a nationwide referendum on how to divide power, but he failed during a first round of closed-door talks with Khasbulatov and Constitutional Court Chairman Valery D. Zorkin last Thursday to close a deal.

Khasbulatov, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Russian legislature, carried the conservatives’ campaign to torpedo the referendum a step further Monday by proposing that the vote scheduled for April 11 also directly ask voters: “Do you trust the president of the Russian Federation?”

Russians would also be asked if they have confidence in the conservative-dominated Congress of People’s Deputies and the Supreme Soviet, the smaller legislature that Khasbulatov chairs, as well as in the government headed by Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin.

Voters would also endorse or reject early elections for Russian president and for lawmakers if Khasbulatov’s proposal were implemented. By posing the questions so sharply, Khasbulatov is likely trying to force Yeltsin to drop the idea of a referendum altogether.

In a newspaper interview, Khasbulatov had earlier branded the proposed nationwide vote “a judicial folly.”

Yeltsin had originally wanted the plebiscite so Russians could choose between his pro-market reform policies and the far more conservative views of lawmakers. Voters would be asked to opt either for a presidential form of government or for the Soviet-style system where the soviets of elected councils hold supreme legislative and executive power.

Since the Congress approved the referendum last December, leaders of many Russian autonomous ethnic homelands have opposed holding it, saying it could fan divisions and lead to the country’s breakup. Widespread apathy could also cause a low turnout. Russian economic conditions have so deteriorated that Yeltsin can no longer count on an overwhelming majority.

Although Yeltsin’s own entourage is divided, the government is continuing preparations for the April balloting, leaving Yeltsin with the option of conducting the referendum if power-sharing negotiations with Khasbulatov fail.

First Vice Premier Vladimir F. Shumeiko said during a round table of political parties and organizations on Monday that the referendum is needed so Russians can choose between a “democratic” or “socialist” society. Without an expression of the people’s will, he said, further implementation of economic reforms is impossible.