Word: yeltsin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Hard-liners have accused Yeltsin of using the new constitution to make himself into a modern-day czar. While the draft enshrines the broad provisions of the U.S. Bill of Rights and many declarative guarantees from the communist era, like the right to housing and medical care, it leaves key questions about the organization of the legislative branch to the discretion of the new parliament...
...Boris Yeltsin refused to endorse any party in Russia's parliamentary elections. Nonetheless, he took to the campaign trail last week on a surprise visit to the volatile North Caucasus region, where ethnic tensions have sparked armed conflicts. The President's message could not have been more direct: if voters in this separatist-minded region failed to endorse his new draft constitution, the Russian Federation was in danger of falling apart. Local officials dutifully joined the President in a statement calling for a da vote in the constitutional referendum...
While attention focused on elections to the new bicameral parliament, the Kremlin was worried about how Russia's 108 million voters would cast their ballots on the constitution. Since Yeltsin suspended the rebellious parliament and crushed a hard-line armed revolt last October, he has been ruling alone by presidential decree. To bring Russia back onto a constitutional track, he took a bold gamble in asking voters simultaneously to select new lawmakers and approve a new law of the land...
...give the President substantial powers to control parliament -- a major change from Soviet-era constitutions that brings Russia closer to the French model of a presidential republic. Because the Kremlin wants to rule out any possibility that the bloody showdown in October could be repeated, the new law grants Yeltsin the right to disband the parliament if it fails to accept his nominee for Prime Minister for the third time or attempts to force a vote of confidence twice in three months. The post of Vice President has been abolished, owing to Yeltsin's bitter experience with his own running...
...Yeltsin should run for election," Goldmansaid. "He has to have another mandate. If hedoesn't run again, he will be forced...