Yeltsin Has ‘Won Spurs,’ French Critic Decides

BRUSSELS —  French deputy Jean-Pierre Cot, who gave Boris N. Yeltsin a hostile reception during a visit to the European Parliament, now says the Russian Federation president has “won his spurs” as a statesman.

Cot spoke at a special meeting of all the European Parliament’s deputies here that focused on the situation in the Soviet Union in the light of the failed coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Yeltsin led the resistance to the three-day coup.

Cot, leader of the European Parliament’s Socialist group, had a heated exchange with Yeltsin during the April visit, saying at one point that he was a “demagogue.”