Yeltsin Seizes Chance to Purge Political Enemies

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AS burly riot police, red carnations in their hands, black leather boots on their feet, buried their dead yesterday, President Boris Yeltsin extended his blitz on conservative opponents, closing down Russia's highest court, forcing out a leading trade union leader, and announcing plans to downgrade the Lenin mausoleum.

Flags flew at half mast across the country yesterday, declared an official day of mourning for more than 170 people killed in an armed uprising that spilled more blood in Moscow than the 1917 revolution.

The new death-toll includes 49 bodies retrieved from the White House, pounded into submission on Monday by T-80 tanks and hundreds of soldiers …