Word: yeltsin
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...Yeltsin may talk tough, but he has left the door open for compromise. The government reached an accord, of sorts, last week with the Civic Union, the opposition group representing the interests of powerful Russian industrialists. Yeltsin agreed to restore some state controls over the economy during the transition to a free market. In another move aimed at defusing political tensions, Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Poltoranin, an archenemy of the hard-liners, stepped down. He wanted, he said, "to protect the President from mounting attacks from an opposition bent on revenge...
...congress, the Yeltsin team also floated a plan for a "constitutional agreement" with parliament. The scheme called for a 12- to-18-month "stabilization" period during which the powers of the President, the parliament and the government would be redefined. Since Yeltsin would undoubtedly have to impose limitations on the parliament to make the plan work, rebellious deputies seem unlikely to buy it, even if the President agrees to shake up his Cabinet in the bargain...
...Yeltsin has already tried to outmaneuver the parliament by setting up extragovernmental agencies that are answerable only to the President. Yet even Yeltsin's democratic supporters were concerned when he established a new security council to oversee defense, security, police and foreign-policy issues, with Yuri Skokov, an elusive apparatchik from the military-industrial sector, as chief of staff. It reminds too many people of the party's old secret Politburo. Yeltsin has also set up special commissions that report to him personally to deal with the agricultural crisis and the growing crime rate. Such moves have prompted the conservative...
...Yeltsin team has been toying with other options to break the deadlock between the rival branches of power. One would be to turn directly to the people, as Gorbachev did in March 1991 when he held a national referendum on a new Soviet Union. Radical democratic groups have long been prodding Yeltsin to put the parliament-or-Pres ident question to a similar vote. Another referendum topic that some economists believe to be absolutely crucial to the success of Yeltsin's reforms is whether land ought to be bought and sold: without private property laws, capitalism cannot flourish. The President...
...many ways, Yeltsin is a master politician, determined to get politics off the national agenda so that Russia can finally buckle down to work. Many of his tactical moves appear to be prompted by a desire to hold the forces of reaction in check long enough for a new society to emerge, where economic self-interest will prevail over the political passions of the past. He also seems to be sincere in his intention to devolve power from a small group of players in Moscow out into the vast reaches of the country. But the paradox Yeltsin must ultimately resolve...