Here is your major slide... We are down 10% since the political
instability started. Such instabilities were buying opts in the
past, but we'll see now. The messages I get from inside Russia
sound very pessimistic (about the government, and the
situation in the country). -Vi
MOSCOW, April 3 (AFP) - President Boris Yeltsin insisted Friday
that he would set the formation of the new government, ruling out a
coalition cabinet with his political foes and vowing to persist with
tough economic policies.
After agreeing Thursday to give his opponents in parliament a
say in Russia's political and economic future, Yeltsin insisted that
this concession would yield neither a coalition government nor a
revision of Russia's economic course.
"The president has demonstrated his political will to have talks
with (parliament) on the question of the formation of the
government," Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said.
"This does not mean in the slightist that the president is in
favour of forming a coalition government," Yastrzhembsky said,
adding that such a government was "unacceptable" to the president.
The spokesman said Yeltsin would ensure that his new
premier-designate Sergei Kiriyenko and his team remained committed
to tight fiscal policies, low inflation, a stable exchange rate and
guaranteed property rights.
The brief yet unambiguous manifesto served as a reminder to
parliament and its strong Communist contingent that Yeltsin was
unlikely to concede much ground to his opponents in the State Duma
lower house of parliament at a roundtable of political leaders that
Yeltsin is to convene on Tuesday.
The Duma would favour the speaker of the upper chamber if he
were nominated as prime minister, the Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov
said Friday.
Duma deputies would back Yegor Stroyev if he were to be
nominated in place of Kiriyenko, Seleznyov told the Interfax news
agency.
The Communists, who have demanded a coalition government ever
since they became parliament's largest bloc in 1995, have warned
that political compromise with the president is only possible if
Yeltsin agrees to change the "destructive" course of his
government's economic policy.
The roundtable was one of several conciliatory gestures granted
by Yeltsin Thursday in an effort to defuse the escalating row
between president and parliament, which was sparked by his abrupt
dismissal of the government on March 23.
His subsequent appointment of young technocrat Kiriyenko and
threat to dissolve the Duma if it did not rubber-stamp his
government revamp touched off a furore which has threatened to
degenerate into the gravest political and constitutional crisis in
Russia since an October 1993 parliamentary uprising.
Duma leaders, and the strong Communist contingent in particular,
have vowed to reject Yeltsin's protege, arguing that with just four
months' experience in the cabinet he is little more than an
inexperienced Yeltsin puppet.
Originally Kiriyenko, 35, had been due to face a baptism of fire
this Friday in the hostile Duma, where he was due to present his
plans for tackling Russia's pressing social and economic predicament
before bracing for a vote on his candidacy.
The vote is now most likely to go ahead next Friday, giving
deputies time to reflect on the candidate and his program after
Tuesday's gathering of Russia's political heavyweights.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov reiterated Thursday that his
bloc and its allies would vote against Kiriyenko three times if
necessary, maintaining the spectre of dissolution of the assembly.
But in reality few expect the Duma to muster a majority on three
occasions against the nominee.
"Kiriyenko will undoubtedly win in the second or third round
because deputies for sure have no interest in the dissolution of the
Duma," said Yevgeny Volk of the Heritage Foundation think-tank. |
