Economics and Politics Boris G. Fyodorov, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Yeltsin ally who is the main proponent of economic reform, says, "Everything depends on April 25."

The Speaker of the lower house, Ivan Rybkin, a Yeltsin ally, said he thought the chances of early elections were 50-50.

His name also came up in connection with shady business dealings involving a key Yeltsin ally, Vladimir F. Shumeiko, who had briefly been Mr. Yakubovsky's boss.

A former Yeltsin ally who has now made a point of keeping his distance from the increasingly unpopular President, Mr. Luzhkov came right out and told journalists last week that the time had come for Mr. Yeltsin to step down.

The Information Minister, Mikhail Fedotov, quit under pressure from another Yeltsin ally, Mikhail Poltoranin, who wants a more rigorously controlled press.

The party was formed by Yuri Skokov, another former Yeltsin ally who has broken with the President.

On Wednesday, for instance, the Parliament voted to downgrade and restructure its Committee on Economic Reforms, now led by a Yeltsin ally, who will be replaced.

But any report would begin with Mr. Berezovsky, an arch-capitalist and onetime Yeltsin ally whose relations with the Kremlin are strained.

Mr. Ilyushin, an old Yeltsin ally, gave no details.

Earlier this fall, Mr. Luzhkov, once a loyal Yeltsin ally, took pains to distance himself from the enfeebled President with a public suggestion that he step down before his term ends in 2000.