this should serve to calm things down a bit:
Russian Leaders Reach Agreement
By LESLIE SHEPHERD Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's interim government and
parliamentary leaders agreed Sunday to an 18-month truce that
would leave Boris Yeltsin in control and give the administration
time to try to end the country's economic and political crisis.
Under the tentative agreement, Communists and their allies
agreed to give swift confirmation to acting Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin and said they would not try to topple the
government for 18 months.
In exchange, President Yeltsin will consult lawmakers on
Cabinet appointments and will not dissolve parliament during the
same period, Russian media reported.
The agreement comes after nearly a week of uncertainty about
who was in charge of Russia while the economy is in a tailspin.
While Yeltsin would be obliged to consult parliament on key
issues, the agreement appeared to leave him with substantial
political power.
The agreement would provide a political truce until
parliamentary elections scheduled for December 1999. Under
the Russian Constitution, the parliament has little authority and
opposition leaders had demanded some form of power sharing,
but the pact appeared to stop short of that.
Yeltsin was forced to go on national television Friday to
reiterate he would not resign before his term ends in 2000 and
Chernomyrdin followed on Saturday with reassurances that
there will be no return to the Soviet system.
''Maybe we would have liked some sections of the documents
to be tougher,'' said Gennady Seleznyov, a Communist who is
speaker of the State Duma.
''But we must take into consideration that there are seven
factions in the State Duma, there is the president, the
government and the Federation Council,'' he said, according to
the ITAR-Tass news agency.
The Federation Council is the upper chamber of parliament and
the State Duma, the lower. The Duma is scheduled to meet
Monday to consider Chernomyrdin's appointment, and
Alexander Shokhin, the head of his parliamentary faction
predicted he would be approved on the first vote.
Chernomyrdin said Saturday the negotiations on the political
agreement were difficult in part because they are historic.
''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,'' he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
The agreement was sent to Yeltsin to sign at his country
residence outside of Moscow, said Vladimir Ryzhkov, deputy
speaker of the Duma.
It could yet be derailed by some of the smaller parties who were
still seeking amendments.
The Communists want some changes made to the terms of IMF
loans to Russia, said the chairman of their allied Agrarian Party,
Nikolai Kharitonov. They also want Yeltsin to be forced to
consult them on an alternative candidate for prime minister if
they reject Chernomyrdin. Yeltsin now has the authority to
dissolve parliament if they reject his candidate three times.
Chernomyrdin -- whose ability to carry out economic reforms
has been questioned in the past -- vowed in a scripted TV
interview Saturday that there will be no return to the Soviet
system.
''We have already joined the world economy, and there will be
no return to the past,'' Chernomyrdin said, promising to keep
the ruble convertible, shore up the wobbly banking system and
protect depositors.
''The main thing is to make sure people don't suffer,'' he said,
looking straight at the camera. ''For this we should use our
power, and we will use it as much as necessary.''
''You can be calm. You will get your savings,'' he said.
Yeltsin brought Chernomyrdin back as prime minister a week
ago because he hoped the familiar figure would restore
confidence in the government, badly damaged by the ruble's
sharp decline.
The situation showed a few signs of nascent recovery. After
sharp drops last week, the ruble bounced back a bit in Moscow
street sales and demand was high enough that some exchange
booths ran out of the Russian currency.
The crisis has been building all summer as Russia's financial
markets collapsed, hit by the growing global crisis in developing
markets. The economic turmoil forced the government to
devalue the ruble two weeks ago, which triggered a larger crisis
of confidence in Yeltsin's government.
AP-NY-08-30-98 0621EDT |
