Word: parliament
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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BORIS YELTSIN AND RUSLAN KHASBULAtov stared each other down in the Kremlin last week, and Yeltsin blinked. More to the point, he abruptly rose from his chair and walked off the stage. Russia's President and the chairman of its parliament, the Supreme Soviet, have been in direct confrontation for months over the course and pace of economic reforms -- and more fundamentally, over who should rule Russia. Yeltsin, who stands higher in public esteem than the legislature, has managed to hold his own through compromises and concessions, including the sacrifice of some of his key planners. But after four days...
...struggle for power between President and parliament is not just a battle between two ambitious men or between reformers and hard-liners or even between rival ideologies. What Yeltsin has been trying to do with Russia may not be possible. Never before has a nation with such a despotic history as Russia's transformed itself into a multiparty democracy with a market economy. Yeltsin and his team of shock therapists have been at the task since the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, producing few successes and much turmoil, hardship and anxiety. As the pain mounted, Khasbulatov and the President...
...Great Kremlin Palace, the Deputies unhesitatingly voted by large majorities to cancel all previous power-sharing compromises with Yeltsin, ban the April referendum, strip away the President's power to issue decrees and put the Cabinet under parliamentary control. In effect, the executive branch was neutralized and parliament took over as arbiter of personnel and policy. On Friday, when the President's proposed amendments were rejected overwhelmingly, a grim-faced Yeltsin strode out of the hall...
Presidential aides immediately insisted that if the April referendum were not held, Yeltsin would go ahead with a nonbinding plebiscite asking Russian citizens to choose between the executive and the parliament. On Saturday, Yeltsin refused to return for the closing session but sent the Congress two new proposals: water down the limitations it had voted on presidential power and agree to hold his referendum on April 25. The deputies dismissed the first request as "inappropriate" and cautioned Yeltsin that it would be unconstitutional for him to try to hold a plebiscite...
FIGUREHEAD OR DICTATOR? RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin seemed to be facing just that stark a choice: he could either bow to a resolution passed by the Congress of People's Deputies stripping him of much of his power, or dissolve the parliament and try to institute a presidential regime propped up by the military. Before resorting to that "final option," though, Yeltsin played another card: he sought to put the question of who should wield the ultimate power in Russia to a nationwide vote. But the Congress, staying in session two extra days, rejected Yeltsin's plebiscite plan...