A second defeat, hot on the heels of the last, could do fatal damage to the party.This lack of appetite for another electoral battle suggests the country's political limbo could last for months, unless Mr Yeltsin's fate is decisively settled, either by the operation, or by his departure. Mr Zyuganov also knows that Mr Lebed - a far more flamboyant figure than he - is the favourite to fill Mr Yeltsin's shoes. The nationalist- leaning general is likely to undermine his own attempts to style himself as more of a patriot than a Communist. Mr Chernomyrdin would have a particularly delicate balancing act. He harbours ambitions of his own, which could suffer is he spends too long propping up a greatly weakened president, elected on false pretences.But what of the Communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, who came second to Mr Yeltsin in July's run-off? Yesterday, during a trip to the Council of Europe's parliament in Strasbourg, he called for the President's resignation, and declared his election as fraudulent because of the cover-up over the heart attack.Yet this relatively mild burst of rhetoric may have been more for the benefit of his party follower, who would expect no less, than a genuine call to arms. They need time to allow the general's popularity to wear off, and for his fragile peace deal in Chechyna to fall apart. His opponents will brandish Article 92 of the 1993 constitution, which says he must step down if he is "persistently incapable" of carrying out his duties.

It is, however, not spelt out precisely how incapacitated he must be for this to apply.But, even if he becomes little more than a figurehead - an ageing recluse, kept alive for his signature - there will be still greater pressure on him to stay on, from the West, which helped bankroll his re-election, and from his inner circle.Neither Mr Chernomyrdin or his chief-of-staff, Anatoly Chubais, are likely to want another poll in the near future; they know Alexander Lebed, secretary of the Security Council, would probably win. Mr Yeltsin, who has virtually admitted he will be incapable of governing unless he has surgery, will be under some pressure to resign from elements in parliament. The cover-up, in which most of the media collaborated, will only deepen their impulse to fight dirty next time around.If the President does not have the bypass operation the picture becomes more murky. Their faith in the integrity of Russia's democracy, never great, was further dented by the media coverage of the presidential election, which was overwhelmingly biased towards Mr Yeltsin. Moreover, most people have long known that the 65-year-old president was unhealthy, and a fierce drinker to boot, even if they did not know exactly how bad his condition was when they went to the polls in July.But Mr Yeltsin's political opponents, particularly the Communists, will have taken note. Russia's voters may not worry much that they were duped into electing a seriously ill president by officials who hushed up the fact that he had a third heart attack, shortly before they voted.Government skulduggery rarely surprises Russians, whose political expectations were destroyed by decades of Communist rule, and remain low. Claims by doctors that the President is determined to have surgery ring true.

Although given to stints of prolonged apathy, Mr Yeltsin is generally too active and too fond of power to be happily put out to grass. He will almost certainly be willing to take greater risks than most heart patients.If the bypass is a success, he will resume office and Russia will stagger on until the next crisis, although it has been tarnished by the latest events. The first is that Mr Yeltsin temporarily hands over power to his Prime Minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin, and the operation goes ahead, in six to eight weeks time. The Russian President's team of surgeons will meet tomorrow to discuss the next stage in his preparation for surgery, following revelations by their leader, Renat Akchurin, that it could be postponed for up to two months, or even cancelled - such is the damaged state of Mr Yeltsin's heart. Yesterday, they were joined by an 88-year-old renowned American cardiologist, Michael Debakey, who flew into Moscow amid continuing uncertainty, both in Russia and the West, over the future of Mr Yeltsin's presidency.There are several options. The Kremlin carried on with its uneasy, Soviet-style silence over the health of Boris Yeltsin yesterday, as the world waited to discover whether he is fit enough to go ahead with a heart bypass operation, or whether his second term in office will fizzle out almost before it has started. A judge at Cardiff Crown Court fined it pounds 175,000 with pounds 44,000 costs and compensation after chemicals from its water treatment works at Rhayader, Powys, killed thousands of fish along one of the best stretches of fly fishing river in Wales.The Water Services Association, which represents nine of the big 10 firms, said: "Our performance is one of sustained improvement." He said hundreds of sewage works had been upgraded or built from scratch since privatisation and Environ- ment Agency figures showed a sharp improvement in river water quality across the country.. heavier fines are the only answer."Severn Trent has the worst record with 42 prosecutions, while South West, with seven, has the least.Earlier this year, Severn Trent, Britain's second largest water company, received the largest ever fine for a water company.

"They have shown they are not prepared to give sufficient priority to ending these incidents."In other words, pollution is the cheaper option This has got to be stopped ... "Clearly, the water companies are not sufficiently embarrassed to take these pollution offences seriously," said Mr Dobson. On average, there have been three a month, but there have already been 28 prosecutions this year, com0pared with 31 in the whole of last year and 25 in 1994.The figures show the great majority of prosecutions arise from effluent from sewage works and are dealt with by magistrates with fines of a few thousand pounds Fines above pounds 10,000 have been rare. But the party would make no cast-iron commitment to raise the maximum magistrates' court fine for water pollution above the current pounds 20,000, or make courts give more weight to previous pollution convictions. Frank Dobson, the party's environment spokesman, said a Labour government would consider changing the sentencing regime and bringing in a minimum fine for water pollution.Labour has obtained details of 240 prosecutions since the industry's 1989 privatisation from the Environment Agency. The big 10 water companies of England and Wales have been prosecuted 240 times since privatisation, but the fines imposed on them equal the profits they make in just five hours, the Labour Party said yesterday.

"Some are keen to do something about contaminated land, others don't see it as having any priority."The problem for councils is that, having made the effort and identified problem sites, they might end up not being able to identify the polluters, or they could plead hardship.". Councils will have to rely on central government grants to deal with such sites.David Cuckson, a solicitor with a City firm who specialises in environmental law, predicted a patchy response from councils under the new regime. Instead, the new owner will take on this responsibility.Dozens of the contaminated sites which require remediation are expected to be "orphan sites", where whoever caused the contamination cannot be traced, has ceased to trade or cannot afford to pay. Thus housing and shopping centre land will have to be detoxified to a higher standard than playing fields or car parks. A company which caused contamination but then sold the land on will not be liable for the clean-up costs if the purchaser knew about the likely problems when the site was bought. If the company or the individual responsible refused, then the council can get the work done itself and claim the money back.The clean-up will have to be the bare minimum required for whatever use is planned for the site.