STOCKHOLM, Dec 4: Russian President Boris Yeltsin suddenly lifts Japan to the rank of a ``nuclear power'', cites a convention on the ``non-divulgence and destruction of nuclear warheads'', and mistakenly announces Russian unilateral disarmament. The Russian President's passion for dramatic announcements has resulted in a bevy of blunders during his brief three-day visit to Sweden which concludes on Thursday.

The Russian leader, visibly tired since the beginning of his official visit in Stockholm on Tuesday, has not been able to resist the temptation to stray from his prepared texts to surprise and seduce his audience.

On Tuesday, during a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson, he suddenly took his eyes off the notes he had been using to make fairly classical statements about Russian-Swedish relations. The 66-year-old Russian President immediately became the defender of world peace, ensuring that as long as he is in power there will never be another threat from Moscow.

At this point Yeltsin began to err, first listing Germany and then Japan as countries with nuclear weapons, then adding that they must join the ``Convention on the Non-divulgence and Destruction of Nuclear Warheads'' - unheard of in the world of international conventions. Several Russian ministers standing off to the side, including Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, seemed to jump out of their skin.

Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky, standing among them, quickly slid over behind Yeltsin, as if to come to his aid. The spokesman admitted on Wednesday that he had whispered to Yeltsin that it was time to cut short the press conference, as other engagements awaited the Russian leader.

But Yastrzhembsky's efforts failed to stop Yeltsin, who announced that Russia would unilaterally reduce its nuclear warheads by one-third. The spokesman then spent half an hour ``interpreting'' the statement, back-pedalling for the President as diplomatically as possible by explaining that there would be no unilateral disarmament. Yeltsin also made other more harmless faux-pas, for which his audiences seem to have immediately forgiven him.

He brought chuckles to Russian and Swedish ministers on Tuesday by insisting that Sweden accept a Russian gas pipeline project, via Finland and Germany, which would permit Russia to increase its gas exports to western Europe.He publicly demanded on Tuesday that an agreement be on his desk by 8:00 am on Wednesday, and announced to an amused Goeran Persson that the Swedish government had been ``criticised for its use of coal and that's normal''.

In fact, Stockholm has faced criticism for its use of nuclear energy, and already has plans to gradually phase out the country's 12 nuclear power plants.

On Wednesday, he had the Swedish Parliament in splits when he broached the subject again and briefly departed from his prepared speech: ``Russia has decided to build this gas pipeline and we will do it,'' he said, knowing fully well that the project cannot go ahead without the green light from Stockholm.

But Yeltsin's insistence was not in vain: it forced Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov to sit up all night working in order to sign a protocol on energy sector cooperation with Swedish Industry Minister Anders Sundstroem on Wednesday afternoon. The protocol contains no concrete commitment from the Swedish government though.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.