Yeltsin Gets Halfhearted Vow of Support : Politics: It is unclear whether Supreme Soviet’s lackluster proclamation is genuine olive branch or public relations stunt.

MOSCOW — Beleaguered Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin received grudging support from several opponents Friday, but their lackluster announcements also suggested that he has not yet persuaded politicians to unite behind him and his reforms.

Ten days before the Congress of People’s Deputies opens what promises to be a combative session challenging Yeltsin’s government, several of his most trenchant critics pledged to back the president. But it was unclear whether their statements--which implicitly criticized Yeltsin even as they offered conditional support--were genuine olive branches or veiled threats.

The Supreme Soviet, a standing legislature elected by the Congress of People’s Deputies, overwhelmingly passed a resolution to cooperate with Yeltsin and to “back all positive actions aimed at furthering reform.” Yet, as critics pointed out, the lawmakers--most of them former Communists who have called for slowing painful economic reform--never defined “positive actions.”

“The statement is just a smoke screen,” said Father Gleb Yakunin, a Russian Orthodox priest and outspoken pro-reform lawmaker. “It attempts to disguise the apparent contradiction between the government, the president and the Parliament.”

By proclaiming their readiness to work with Yeltsin, deputies may be pulling a public relations stunt--laying grounds to declare themselves the good guys if the Congress becomes confrontational. The Supreme Soviet’s “words must not be trusted,” Yakunin said, calling its statement a “cunning move.”

The leader of the influential Civic Union group, which unites industrialists and factory managers in opposition to Yeltsin’s economic reforms, made an equally ambiguous announcement Friday.

In Seoul with Yeltsin, Arkady I. Volsky promised to back the president, but only if Volsky’s Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs reaches agreement with the government on “the majority of major issues,” the Russian Information Agency reported.

Volsky previously had given the government until last Wednesday to come to an agreement with his powerful coterie of managers and factory directors. That deadline passed without incident.

As he prepares for the Dec. 1 showdown at the Congress, Yeltsin has gone on the offensive, banning an umbrella group of his most extreme opponents and attacking the privileges of the Parliament chairman. He has also hinted that he might impose a state of emergency or resort to some form of authoritarian rule if Congress tries to block his reforms.

Perhaps to placate the president, deputies have suggested that they are willing to compromise. On Friday, the 220-member Supreme Soviet rejected a conservative lawmaker’s proposal to put Yeltsin’s impeachment on the agenda. Denouncing the liberal press for portraying the upcoming Congress as “a vile attempt to stop social, economic and democratic reforms in this country,” the legislature emphasized its willingness to collaborate with the president.

Yeltsin did receive one unequivocal boost Friday. Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi, who has often clashed bitterly with Yeltsin, denounced calls for the president’s Cabinet to resign, arguing that “changes in the existing system of power lead nowhere,” according to news reports.