Word: duma
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Last week even Yeltsin seemed to have taken on too much in the war with his old enemies in the Duma, Russia's lower parliamentary body. The day before impeachment discussions opened, Yeltsin fired his popular Prime Minister, Yevgeni Primakov. Primakov was officially dismissed because of the President's concern about the slow pace of economic change. In fact he was dropped because he broke all the rules in his relations with Yeltsin. He was independent, he answered back, he even interrupted the President in public. This smacked of disloyalty. And in the twilight of his career, Yeltsin values loyalty...
...communist-dominated opposition in the Duma was infuriated by Primakov's dismissal--he enjoyed good relations with the communists--but was certain that it would guarantee the 300 votes needed to impeach Yeltsin on at least one of the five counts leveled against him. The motion with the best chance of success accused Yeltsin of starting a violent civil war in the breakaway Russian province of Chechnya in 1994. But once again Yeltsin thwarted his opponents. Last Saturday one-third of the Duma failed to turn up for the most important vote in their careers. Opposition deputies claimed, without offering...
...confirmed will immediately rouse Yeltsin's suspicion," says TIME Moscow bureau chief Paul Quinn-Judge. "After all, for all his ill health and mental diminution, Yeltsin still controls the political system here, and he's immediately suspicious of any prime minister who appears to get along with the Duma or enjoys public confidence. Of course, a prime minister has to work with the Duma if he wants to get anything done -- but then it's open to question whether Yeltsin really wants anything to get done...
...Duma's acceptance of Stepashin's nomination wasn't simply a backhanded curse. "They're deeply demoralized by their failure to impeach Yeltsin and they fear he may be out to provoke a crisis to dissolve parliament, possibly even banning them," says Quinn-Judge. "And of course, they have a demonstrably incompetent leadership." Stepashin made the usual promises about fighting corruption and reforming the economy. But Russians see Stepashin as a familiar sideshow, while real power remains in the hands of an all-powerful president whose physical and mental health are in perilous decline...
...Yeltsin is threatening to dissolve the Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, and call new elections unless his new pick for prime minister, Sergei Stepashin, is approved. That looked unlikely Thursday, as legislators proceeded with moves to impeach Yeltsin, setting the stage for a showdown. While the constitution allows Yeltsin to dissolve the legislature if it rejects his nominee three times, it also forbids dissolution of the Duma while impeachment proceedings are under way. That may look like a constitutional crisis in a Western democracy, but in Boris Yeltsin's Russia lawyers and judges...