-Caveat Lector-
"Inside, there were shouts of ``Traitor!'' at ultranationalist Vladimir
Zhirinovsky, whose party was pivotal in preventing Yeltsin's removal.
"Zhirinovsky, gesturing wildly, delivered a rambling speech during the
hearings.
"Instead of trying to remove Yeltsin, he argued, the Duma should "unite
against the common enemy" -- NATO, which "is planning to launch a war against
Russia.' "
Impeachment Fail Enrages Hardliners
By SERGEI SHARGORODSKY
.c The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) -- Anger and frustration gripped hard-line legislators, and
hysterical Communist supporters started a scuffle in the State Duma on
Saturday after the lower house of parliament failed to launch impeachment
proceedings against President Boris Yeltsin.
Elderly women in a crowd of hard-liners who had demonstrated all day outside
the imposing Soviet-era Duma building broke into tears after learning the
results.
Inside, dozens of hard-line legislative aides and party activists shouted
``Traitor!'' and ``Prostitute!'' at ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky,
whose party was pivotal in Yeltsin's success.
Several men and women began pushing Alexei Mitrofanov, Zhirinovsky's aide,
and a few in the crowd were kicked before Duma security intervened.
``They sold Russia!'' shouted Zinaida Ivanova, an elderly Communist
supporter, as she shook her fist at Zhirinovsky in a Duma corridor.
Hard-line lawmakers emerged looking grim, but tried to present the
unsuccessful vote as a moral victory of sorts.
``Our conscience is clear,'' Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told
reporters.
Hundreds of journalists and visitors filled the Duma corridors Saturday,
watching the third day of hearings on large monitors. The day's proceedings
found the frequently unruly Duma sober and even solemn as faction leaders
delivered closing arguments in their impeachment case against Yeltsin.
Yeltsin was accused of destroying the Soviet Union, ruining the Russian
military, causing deaths in a 1993 standoff with parliament, starting the
Chechen War, and waging genocide on the Russian people by destroying the
economy.
``Lies, hypocrisy and cynicism have become the foundations of Yeltsin's
policy,'' Zyuganov said during his speech in the Duma. ``Yeltsin is an
absolute evil for Russia.''
Liberal Grigory Yavlinsky gave a terrifying account of Russia's bloody
1994-96 war in Chechnya. He reminded the Duma that nearly 400 bodies of
unidentified servicemen and civilians killed in the war still lie in
refrigerators in southern Russia, awaiting burial.
Yeltsin ``has failed to find the means to bury the people whom he had pushed
to death,'' said Yavlinsky, interrupted by loud applause. ``It means these
people are garbage for the president. We are all garbage for the president,
meant to strengthen his weakening absolute power.''
Zhirinovsky, gesturing wildly and pointing an occasional accusing finger at
fellow legislators, delivered a rambling speech during the hearings, mixing
history, personal past and geopolitics.
Instead of trying to remove Yeltsin, the Duma should unite against such
``common enemies'' as NATO and China, who plan to launch a war on Russia, he
argued.
``The war is coming close to our borders,'' Zhirinovsky shouted.
The hard-line Agrarian Party leader, Nikolai Kharitonov, also claimed to see
a NATO threat, saying Yeltsin was wrong to point nuclear missiles away from
the West.
The centrist Our Home is Russia faction said Yeltsin alone could not be
blamed for the nation's post-Soviet shortcomings, and announced it would not
back impeachment.
As the chairman of Duma's counting commission announced the results, some
hard-liners shouted that the vote meant the end of the Duma.
Zyuganov tried to put a positive spin on the failed impeachment attempt.
``A majority of the Duma said the accusations were grounded,'' he insisted,
claiming victory even though his supporters could not muster the necessary
two-thirds support.
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