>From "Russia Today <russiatoday.com.
Thu., Oct. 08, 1998 Mos 1:58 p.m.
Protesters in Moscow Say Yeltsin
Guilty of Treason
MOSCOW -- (Reuters) Russian
protesters accused President Boris
Yeltsin of treason and theft as they
dangled a hangman's noose outside the
walls of the Kremlin on Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of striking workers
marched through Moscow's streets to
protest about unpaid wages and
economic hardship, and demanded
Yeltsin's resignation outside the ancient
fortress as the president worked inside.
"Yeltsin made a beggar out of me," read
one banner tied to the hangman's rope.
"Hang Yeltsin," it said, above a crowd of
some 70,000 gathered just off Red
Square at the end of a march across the
capital.
"Yeltsin betrayed his people and now
we're answering him back," said
pensioner Aleksei Kustaryov, who
receives 400 rubles ($25) a month. "He
has to go."
Inside the Kremlin, Yeltsin, looking
more isolated than at any time in his
seven years in power, got on with what
his spokesman called a "normal working
day."
Some elderly protesters carried portraits
of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the
founder of the Soviet state Vladimir
Lenin.
Even an image of Cambodia's Pol Pot
was carried aloft with a slogan reading:
"The only good bourgeois is a dead
bourgeois."
The red flags of the Communist
opposition outnumbered the yellow,
black and white of monarchists, who
favor a return of the czars, and the trade
unions' blue banners.
"I want socialism back. Democracy has
stolen everything from us. Under
socialism we had everything," said
pensioner Nina Mostenko.
But the Communists' fervor
faded when party leader
Gennady Zyuganov
(pictured) failed to speak at
the end of the rally and bitter
evening replaced the day's
crisp sunshine.
The protesters' main demand was not a
return to the old days.
The majority called for a new start and
vented their anger at the way post-Soviet
market reforms have left most Russians
greatly worse off.
"I don't care about Yeltsin, I just want
someone who would pay us for our
work," said trade unionist Nikolai Bal.
( (c) 1998 Reuters)
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Last updated Thu Oct 8 09:58:33 1998 GMT.
