Dear pen-l'rs,
Here is Weir's Sunday night article.
Bes regards,
Greg
*****
From: Fred Weir in Moscow
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998
For the Hindustan Times
MOSCOW (HT Aug 30) -- In the wake of an unprecedented
pact with Government for re-dividing power in Russia, the
parliament is expected to meet in special session Monday and
should quickly approve Viktor Chernomyrdin as the crisis-wracked
country's new Prime Minister.
"This is the first time in six years that we are coming
to agreement on the definition of the problems in which Russia
finds herself," the independent Interfax agency quoted Mr.
Chernomyrdin as saying Sunday.
The deal, worked out after rumour-filled days of
negotiations between the opposition-led State Duma and the
interim government of Mr. Chernomyrdin, would halt conflict
between Russia's quarrelsome branches of power for a year and a
half while they work together to overcome the nation's financial
collapse.
Gennady Seleznyov, the Communist Speaker of the Duma, told
journalists that parliament would likely meet Monday to endorse
Mr. Chernomyrdin, and that the new Prime Minister would
subsequently consult with the Duma over further cabinet
appointments. Only the four so-called "power ministers" --
defence, security, internal affairs and foreign affairs -- will
still be directly named by the President, he said.
Russia's Independent Television Network said the deal
included the formation, within a month, of a special commission
on revising the country's authoritarian Constitution, which was
authored by President Boris Yeltsin after he physically
eliminated his parliamentary opposition in 1993. Though no details
were immediately available, the powerful Communist Party has
urged that more powers be devolved to Parliament, including the
right to approve cabinet appointments.
At the heart of the accord is a non-aggression pact between
the key branches of power, in which Parliament promises not to
vote no-confidence in the Government and President Yeltsin
pledges not to dissolve the Duma. Both sides agree to let Mr.
Chernomyrdin's new government work for a year and a half without
the kind of sweeping personnel changes that Mr. Yeltsin has
repeatedly effected lately, and which are now seen as a prime
cause of the current political volatility.
Under the deal, the Duma agrees to swiftly begin work on a
comprehensive anti-crisis program to arrest Russia's dire
financial plunge, protect the living standards of the population
and draw investment to the depressed industrial sector.
The arrangement must still be approved by Mr. Yeltsin, who
has recovered some of his characteristic defiance after a week in
which many Moscow observers wrote him off as a spent force.
"I want to say that I'm not going anywhere," Mr. Yeltsin
told Russian TV on Friday. "I'm not going to resign. I will work
as I'm supposed to for my Constitutional term. In 2000 there will
be an election for a new President and I will not run."
Nevertheless, the pact reached Sunday carries the
implication that Mr. Yeltsin's sweeping presidential powers will
be sharply reduced in coming months. There appears to be a broad
consensus among Russia's political elite that Mr. Yeltsin's
course of economic reform has been a failure, and his erratic
decisions -- such as changing Prime Ministers twice in five
months -- are a major source of political instability.
"Not only in the West, but also many people here in Russia
underestimated the peculiarity of Russia, as well as the
mentality of Russians," Mr. Chernomyrdin told the German weekly
Welt am Sonntag in answer to a question about the free-market
advice Russia has received over the past six years. "We were
offered standard economic schemes. But measures that are good for
a small country like Latvia, for example, do not work in Russia,
or even bring the opposite results."
Over the past two weeks the rouble has plunged almost 40 per
cent in value, prices on groceries and other commodities have
begun to shoot up and many of Russia's troubled banks have
refused to pay depositors their money.
The new government's first task will be to calm this
situation before real panic and social upheaval begin.
But Mr. Chernomyrdin scotched rumours that Russia is about
to enact drastic Soviet-style economic policies, such as price
controls, a ban on rouble convertibility and re-nationalization
of strategic industries.
"We have already joined the world economy, and there
will be no return to the past." he said.
``The main thing is to make sure people don't suffer. For
this we should use our power, and we will use it as much as
necessary."
--
Gregory Schwartz
Dept. 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
