Whether or not Russia and the rest of the world should be happy about this is another question.

With the election campaign at the halfway stage, the president is starting to look like a real contender.

What must be alarming his opponents is the fact that Mr Yeltsin is the only candidate who has made significant gains in support over the previous two months and held on to them.

In contrast, Mr Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov seems unable to rise much above the 22% support that his party received in the December Duma elections.

The gradual realization of what a Communist president would mean -- aided by the Communists' Duma blunder about the Soviet Union -- looks like killing Mr Zyuganov's dream.

Across Russia's vastness only the Communists and the Mr Yeltsin's "Party of Power" have the organizational capability to deliver votes countrywide.

In the short term this looks good for a country that sorely needs some real peace to rebuild its still shattered economy.

But the president is a mercurial leader with little time or tolerance for dissent. He is on the verge of institutionalizing his style of rule.

Communism's appeal looks to be too limited -- especially if the economy continues to improve -- to topple the Yeltsin regime.

Russia is set to go on being an autocracy in all but name.

With this in mind the Russian Orthodox Church took full possession once more of what many regard as the city's true spiritual center -- the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (monastery).

St Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak's determination to return the Church its original buildings in their original condition is to be commended.

As with many areas of life, the USSR corrupted religion into a tool of the state -- something successive tsars had attempted without success.

Although Russia is a long way from becoming a free society ruled by law and not force, making Russia's Church a living and independent institution is an important step along the way.