Russians protest as government plan still unclear By Dimitry Antonov MOSCOW, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Around six thousand Russians marched through the streets of the capital on Sunday to mark the 1993 crushing of a coup attempt by the Soviet-era parliament and prepare for a day of nation-wide strikes next week. The protests, mostly by people from Russia's left-wing, were held as the government of new Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov faced the tough task of coming up with a clear plan to end the ex-Soviet giant's deep economic crisis. Russian officials in Washington acknowledged after talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that negotiations on further credits would have to start from scratch given the serious turn for the worse the economy had taken. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, leading the march to the White House government building, urged the protestors to take part in a nationwide day of action next Wednesday. The October 7 protests are against the slide in living standards and the economic and political crisis. They are also aimed at pressuring President Boris Yeltsin to quit. ``I call for you and your relatives to go on October 7 and support these demands (the resignation of Yeltsin and the creation of a coalition government),'' Zyuganov said. A Moscow police spokesman said that around six thousand people had joined the Sunday march. ``I have spoken with the governors of 45 regions and they told me their regions will take part,'' Zyuganov added. ``We don't trust the Yeltsin regime and we hate it,'' said one middle-aged woman who held a big banner with the words ``Long live the Soviet Constitution'' emblazoned across it. The Sunday demonstration was the second of the weekend to mark the 1993 putsch attempt and its violent quelling by Yeltsin. Several hundred people joined a protest on Saturday. Dozens of people were killed when Yeltsin sent in tanks on October 3, 1993, against hardline opponents who had defied his decision to dissolve the Soviet- era parliament by occupying the White House parliament building. Every year since then anti-Yeltsin forces have staged marches and rallies on this date but now their protests carry added resonance as Russia grapples with soaring prices, job losses and a sliding rouble. Primakov is the latest to take on the task of ending Russia's crisis but has still to come up with a clear plan some three weeks after taking office. He must find a definite set of measures to stabilise the rouble, which has plunged 60 percent since mid-August, pay back billions of dollars of debt and salaries and find ways to ensure the proper funding of the budget. Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov, one of the few remaining liberals in Primakov's cabinet, said in Washington after talks with the IMF that any further credits will depend on the economic plans that the new government comes up with. ``It is us who will make the decisions. The position of the international (institutions) will depend on what budget and tax laws are adopted by the parliament,'' Zadornov told reporters after meeting ministers and central bank chiefs of the wealthy Group of Seven industrialised countries. Zadornov also scaled down the estimate for external financing for the fourth quarter, saying a budget would be presented with a figure of just $2.5 billion. This compares with $4.3 billion that Russia had been hoping to receive in a second tranche of expected IMF credits. ``We have a totally different situation now so we basically have to start talks with the IMF from scratch,'' said one Russian senior official in Washington who declined to be named. Primakov has tried to allay fears that he was planning to reintroduce Soviet- style economic management. He reassured a group of top foreign investors on Saturday that the dollar would be allowed freely to circulate and that privatisation would not be reversed. -- Gregory Schwartz Department of Political Science York University 4700 Keele St. Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Canada Tel: (416) 736-5265 Fax: (416) 736-5686 Web: http://www.yorku.ca/dept/polisci
