The political instability is likely to continue.
MOSCOW, April 9 (AFP) - President Boris Yeltsin faces a crushing
defeat on Friday when parliament votes on his young
premier-designate Sergei Kiriyenko, deputies warned Thursday.
Legislators in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament,
said that Kiriyenko, 35, would fail by some distance to garner the
necessary 226 votes to secure parliament's endorsement, and could
end up with an embarrassingly low tally.
The Kremlin has already virtually conceded it will lose Friday's
first-round vote, and even Yeltsin's allies in parliament were
painting a gloomy picture Thursday.
"We can expect that tomorrow there will be less than the 226
votes necessary in the ballot boxes," said Alexander Shokhin, leader
of the parliamentary faction of the pro-government movement Our Home
Is Russia.
"A simple calculation shows that tomorrow will be the first vote
on the candidate for prime minister but not the last."
Parliament has three chances to approve the president's
candidate. Three no votes entitle the head of state to dissolve the
chamber and call fresh legislative elections.
Other deputies told Interfax Thursday that a range of 120-150
votes is the best that Kiriyenko can expect, while Communist house
speaker Gennady Seleznyov said the tally could be barely more than
50 votes in favour of Yeltsin's young lieutenant in the 450-seat
chamber.
Seleznyov pointed out that only the 51 deputies from maverick
ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's LDPR party have thus far
sided with Kiriyenko, and that a paltry return of "scandalous"
proportions cannot be ruled out.
He said he would urge Yeltsin to choose a different candidate
should Kiriyenko taste defeat in the first vote.
The number of votes is likely to be an important indicator, as
Yeltsin reflects on whom to put forward for the second round and
parliamentary deputies mull how far they are prepared to go to defy
the Russian president.
Yeltsin has stuck firmly with Kiriyenko ever since he plucked
him from obscurity as his surprise candidate to replace Viktor
Chernomyrdin, who was abruptly sacked as premier along with his
government on March 23.
The Russian president, who has threatened to dissolve parliament
if he does not get his way, has promised to bounce Kiriyenko's name
straight back to parliament for a second-round vote if he is
rejected Friday.
Parliament leaders have not flinched in the face of Yeltsin's
dissolution threats, insisting that Kiriyenko's four months as
energy minister are insufficient qualifications for the second most
powerful politician of a nuclear power.
They have also argued that the Kremlin neophyte would be out of
his depth if required to take over presidential functions, including
the nuclear button, if Yeltsin, 67, succumbs to the frequent bouts
of ill-health which have removed him from the political scene for
months at a time in recent years.
Kiriyenko for his part has consulted busily with parliament
chiefs on Russia's future political and economic course, and has
also hinted in recent days at policies in his manifesto likely to be
popular with key elements in parliament.
On Wednesday he announced a list of sanctions which could be
slapped on Latvia for its treatment of ethnic Russians, while openly
distancing himself from some of the mistakes of the previous
government.
On Thursday meanwhile he pledged that the government would have
to make good growing wage backlogs to unpaid workers, who staged a
nationwide demonstration to protest the salary arrears.
"It's understandable why people are doing this. They are quite
innocent. They are working and not getting paid," said Kiriyenko,
chairing a government meeting called to discuss ways to tackle the
problem.
"The government has a duty to resolve this matter," he said,
adding that the government this week transferred 700 million rubles
(116 million dollars) to regions suffering the most from public
sector wage backlogs.
The day of action came as an untimely challenge to the acting
premier, though the turnout, which one union leader put at 4.5
million workers, was generally lower than expected.
MOSCOW, April 10 (AFP) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin on
Friday urged Duma deputies to approve his choice of prime minister,
saying he had "no other candidacy" to put forward but Sergei
Kiriyenko's, in a radio address.
"The deputies have the right to reflect, examine and consult,
but the time factor is becoming decisive. We have been living
without a government for too long," the head of state said in a
radio statement released in advance by Moscow Echo radio.
The broadcast came hours before the State Duma, Russia's lower
house, was to examine Kiriyenko's candidacy.
Yeltsin said it was impossible to delay solving the country's
problems and urged the deputies to decide on Kiriyenko's candidacy
as quickly as possible.
However, various parliamentary groups have said Kiriyenko's
candidacy stood no chance of being agreed on Friday.
In that case, Yeltsin would present his candidate a second time
and the Duma would then have a week to reconsider.
"Perhaps the Duma is ready to wait for another week or more, but
the economy will not tolerate it," Yeltsin said, adding "every day
the questions which require urgent resolution pile up."
Since Viktor Chernomyrdin and the rest of the government was
sacked on March 23, Kiriyenko has been acting prime minister and
most of the other ministers have stayed in their jobs to carry out
the most pressing business.
The Russian leader acknowledged that the nomination of a
35-year-old man virtually without experience of government had been
"initially welcomed in a circumspect manner, and had been
ferociously attacked by some."
Yeltsin nonetheless defended his choice, saying: "he is a
professional leader, who knows how to work in a team, who knows how
to avoid publicising himself and popularism."
In a clear attempt to win over left-wing opposition deputies,
many of whom are from the provinces Yeltsin argued Kiriyenko "does
not see the centre of the economy as being in Moscow, but in the
regions, and considers that the solution of economic problems is
linked to social issues."
Yeltsin repeated that tens of thousands of people had
demonstrated and held strikes this week throughout the country to
protest against delays in payment of salaries.
"The country needs severe financial discipline, so that people
don't wait months for salaries and pensions, so that national
industry is strengthened, so that the Russian regions really feel
the support of the federal power," the Russian president said. |
