Word: duma
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Moscow has had no functioning government since Aug. 23, when President Boris Yeltsin dismissed his young Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko. His successor, acting Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, is under heavy pressure from the communist-dominated Duma. Parliamentarians are pushing aggressively for a greater say in running the country. Yelstin had kept them from real power but seemed prepared last weekend to surrender many of his presidential prerogatives. The communists have called for currency controls, re-nationalization and printing more rubles. On the weekend, however, Chernomyrdin went on TV to reassure Russia--and probably the West as well--that there would...
Smelling blood in the economic meltdown, the lower house of parliament, or Duma, took the offensive, calling for Yeltsin to resign, demanding a greater share of power and disdainfully offering the President guarantees that he would not be prosecuted or harassed once he left office. More troubling still, the communists, led by Gennadi Zyuganov, prepared to parlay the failure of Russia's cutthroat capitalism into a rollback of the reforms that, for better or worse, have been credited to Yeltsin's account, such as a freely convertible ruble, a tight money supply, even some industrial privatization...
MOSCOW: Russia's politicians may reach an agreement on a prime minister, but they're unlikely to agree on an economic policy. Boris Yeltsin has convened a weekend horse-trading session in the hope of securing Viktor Chernomyrdin's election on Monday, after the Duma postponed Friday's vote. "The Communists still insist they'll reject Chernomyrdin, but the tide may be turning as backroom deals have swung some key constituencies," says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier...
...Determining who is in charge won't be easy, either: Although Yeltsin plans to renominate Viktor Chernomyrdin for prime minister despite his resounding rejection by the Duma on Monday, the Communists and nationalists who control the legislature may nominate their own candidate -- and the outcome of the power struggle will shape the future of Russian economic reform. "It's a serious game of chicken that could get out of control," says Quinn-Judge. And while contending factions tussle for control of the wheel, the ship is sinking fast...
...Chernomyrdin is trying to cobble together a coalition involving Communists and other opposition parties, but Monday's rejection was a bid by the opposition-controlled Duma to secure further concessions before confirming him in a later ballot. Western lenders are alarmed at the concessions Chernomyrdin has already offered, such as reintroducing Soviet-era price and exchange controls. Any further horse-trading will simply confirm doubts about a Chernomyrdin government's ability to stop the economic hemorrhaging...