Word: gorbachev
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...Like Gorbachev, Yeltsin hopes to bend the referendum to his own purposes. The second question on the ballot in Russia is whether the republic should establish a directly elected presidency. Voters are likely to say they do want to choose their own leader, and Yeltsin is likely to win an election. He will then be ready to do battle with Gorbachev on a more equal footing. With a huge power base and an electoral mandate, Yeltsin will face a national leader who has never been popularly elected but has massive institutional power at his command...
...Gorbachev will portray a yes vote in the referendum as evidence that Yeltsin is defying the will of the people by obstructing the Union treaty. Though conservative deputies have forced a vote of confidence in the Russian parliament for March 28 to threaten Yeltsin's hold on the chairmanship, his position will be greatly strengthened if Yeltsin becomes an elected president. The stalemate could then be prolonged. Yeltsin, however, has limited administrative and no police power and cannot enforce Russian laws on radical economic reform, for example, if they conflict with the Supreme Soviet's legislation...
...despise him, Yeltsin may be thinking of something like Czechoslovakia's "velvet revolution," street demonstrations fueled by an overwhelming wave of people power. But no matter how great his popularity, even Yeltsin will be hard put to mobilize the Russian masses in large enough numbers. They are mostly anti-Gorbachev and antigovernment, but their political inertia has been ingrained over centuries. Already their initial excitement and interest in the open politics of Gorbachev's demokratizatsiya have given way to apathy, cynicism and exhaustion...
Yeltsin has positioned himself in the role Gorbachev formerly played so well: supporter of the common folk. When thousands of coal miners went on strike in 1989, Gorbachev associated himself with their fight against management and emerged as a hero to the working class. Miners are striking in parts of the Ukraine and Siberia once again, but their leaders have turned to Yeltsin. Last week the Russian leader met with strike coordinators, who declared their full support for Yeltsin's political position and "readiness to support it with all possible nonviolent methods." Most miners are asking for higher wages...
...Gorbachev's tentative domestic reforms have so far succeeded only in disabling the old centrally planned economy without providing an effective replacement. He took over the Communist Party in 1985 thinking he could energize and modernize the existing machinery. He was neither a democrat nor a free-marketeer and described himself as a dedicated Communist. But in time he discovered that the party bureaucrats were blocking him because they oppose change in general and treasure their power and privileges. Gorbachev then decided to try to blast the party out of its executive positions and transfer power to a reconstructed government...