Word: yeltsin
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...Yeltsin in his quest to be the kind of strong executive he thinks Russia needs. After he was chosen chairman of the supreme soviet in May 1990, he did a stint as parliamentary leader. A year and one month later, he became the first popularly elected President in the country's history. He even took on the second job of Prime Minister for several months in October 1991. None of these has quite fit the bill. The irony is that Yeltsin is haunted by the same problem that plagued his rival, Mikhail Gorbachev, when the former Soviet President was trying...
...force justified in defense of law and order? These issues resonate deeply in a nation where totalitarian leaders used to violate basic human rights as a matter of course. Gorbachev never resolved the conflict of how to be a strong President without sliding into totalitarian rule. Yeltsin is still feeling his way. Whenever he begins to talk tough in response to turmoil in the ethnic enclaves of the Russian Federation or the latest challenge from parliament, the opposition immediately warns of a coming dictatorship...
Russia desperately needs a new constitution to codify the nation's guidelines. The project has been caught in a dispute between Yeltsin and the parliament over what kind of state structure to enshrine in the new basic law. Yeltsin wants a strong President, who will have a free hand to organize new government structures and appoint ministers. His whole approach is anathema to legislators who want to give parliament the power to control government appointments and to make the head of state a figurehead that Yeltsin supporters claim would be akin to the British Queen...
Western governments operate successfully on both models. But the particular state of politics in Russia tilts the balance in favor of Yeltsin. Far from being a driving force for change, the current two-tier parliament, made up of a permanently working supreme soviet and a larger Congress of People's Deputies that meets at least twice a year, has turned into a major bastion of communist and conservative opposition to reform. The legislature is a cross section, frozen in time, of political forces active in the Soviet Union back in 1990, when the last elections were held and Communist Party...
...things now stand, Yeltsin is saddled with what he views as an obstreperous bunch of foot draggers until their terms expire in 1995. He could try to use the the special powers that the parliament granted him after the abortive coup attempt in August 1991 to disband the legislature altogether and impose direct presidential rule. But many fear such a risky step, and parliamentarians were quick to call Yeltsin's bluff by summoning the People's Deputies into session -- over his heated opposition -- on Dec. 1, the very day his mandate to rule by decree expires...