Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Yeltsin to ban extremist opposition Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 15:01:10 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \HD Yeltsin to ban extremist opposition \SH Coalition poses 'terrible danger' \BY Gerald Nadler \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT MOSCOW MOSCOW - Boris Yeltsin moved yesterday to outlaw a new, extremist opposition bloc that formed on the weekend with jackbooted security guards prominently on show. "Immediate measures must be taken without ado," Mr. Yeltsin said in remarks to Foreign Ministry officials about the newly formed National Salvation Front. He said he had ordered his subordinates to prepare a decree for his signature banning the group. The embattled president also moved closer to a confrontation with parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, who ordered the parliament's own security force to the Izvestia newspaper plant in a bid to keep it under parliamentary control. Mr. Yeltsin has promised that the popular newspaper can become independent. Television viewers gasped last weekend at the sight of jackbooted men in black uniforms and khaki-clad youths standing at attention during the founding congress of the National Salvation Front. Rooms for the meeting were provided right under Mr. Yeltsin's nose by the parliament, a bastion of opposition to the president's reform program. The meeting brought together an unlikely coalition of former Communists, hard-line nationalists, military officers and even so-called "democratic patriots" from the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets). Anti-Semitic literature and books on how to use handguns were sold at the congress, where the participants openly proclaimed their goal of unseating Mr. Yeltsin. Although most speakers called for staying within the constitution, Col. Stanislav Terekhov of the militant Officers' Union sketched a three-point plan that included organizing groups and mass actions. "The third [point] I will not talk about here, but preparations are being made," Col. Terekhov said ominously. In his talk yesterday, Mr. Yeltsin told Foreign Ministry officials to be ready to explain the need for tough action to the world. "There is a terrible danger," Mr. Yeltsin said. "But in the West they don't understand this. "The front calls for the overthrow of legal constitutional authorities," he added. "It turns people against each other. Immediate measures must be taken without ado." The ban would be the first since Mr. Yeltsin outlawed the Communist Party in August 1991. The legality of that move is still being deliberated in the Constitutional Court, where it is attracting little public interest. A similar apathy accompanied the emergence of the National Salvation Front. Only some 2,000 people turned out Saturday for a hard-line rally in Moscow in spite of falling economic production, rampant inflation and a collapsing currency. An equally worrisome challenge to Mr. Yeltsin's authority is being posed by Mr. Khasbulatov, whose 5,000-member parliamentary security force has been dubbed the "Praetorian Guard" or the "Cardinal's Guards" after a formation in Alexandre Dumas' novel, "The Three Musketeers." The force was thrust into the public eye this month after a relative of Mr. Khasbulatov, supposedly a member of the special force, was arrested. The guards also had a shoot-out with police in back of Moscow's main department store, GUM. The immediate dispute is over Izvestia, which in the Communist era served as an organ of the federal Supreme Soviet. Mr. Khasbulatov maintains that since the Russian Supreme Soviet, or parliament, is the legal successor, it owns the property. Mr. Yeltsin has said the Izvestia work force has the right to privatize the newspaper. While Izvestia opposes Mr. Khasbulatov under the banner of free speech, the question also involves valuable property controlled by the newspaper. Izvestia's deputy editor, Nikolai Bodnaruk, reported the arrival of Mr. Khasbulatov's special legislative police at the entrances to Izvestia. He said he would not be surprised if they tried today to seal it off and keep the Izvestia workers out. Mr. Yeltsin also is being pressed by the centrist Civic Union, an alliance of industrial managers of giant Communist-era plants that has practically demanded that he revamp his government, and by his vice president, Alexander Rutskoi, who has said up to eight government ministers should be replaced. A showdown could come before December, when a Congress of People's Deputies is scheduled to convene. Mr. Yeltsin has sought to postpone the congress, which would provide a major platform for his enemies, but the parliament has refused. At a meeting of Russia's regional leaders yesterday, Mr. Yeltsin sneered, "We will see if the Congress takes place [in December]." Mr. Yeltsin said last week that he was thinking of partially dismantling parliament and introducing direct presidential rule, the Russian Information Agency reported. Defense Minister Pavel Grachev quickly offered support, saying the army "is on the side of the president, the commander in chief." But television has since reported that all Mr. Grachev's chief aides quit because of his willingness to involve the army in politics. Other reports differed on whether they quit or were fired. The National Salvation Front contains some of the nation's most notorious hard-liners: the former "black colonel" Viktor Alksnis, who hailed the August putsch and Vilnius massacre; former KGB Gen. Alexander Sterligov; Viktor Aksushitz, the head of the ultrapatriotic Christian Democrats; and Alexander Prokhanov, the editor of the This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM