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Subject: Yeltsin Strengthens Political Position As Congress Nears<By Fred
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 04:45:04 EST
Message-ID: <22.1992Nov25.044505@AmeriCast.com>
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Yeltsin Strengthens Political Position As Congress Nears<By Fred
Hiatt<Washington Post Foreign Service<

MOSCOW, Nov. 24 - Since going on the offensive two weeks ago,
President Boris Yeltsin has thrown his conservative opponents off
balance and placed himself in a stronger position as he nears a
crucial showdown with the Congress of People's Deputies next
week.  Conservative opponents have been backpedaling since
Yeltsin declared his unswerving support for his liberal acting
Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, and his program of radical economic
reform. While noting the dangers of any predictions in Russia's
novice democracy, even many of Yeltsin's critics now say Gaidar
and most of his cabinet seem likely to survive the Congress,
which opens next Tuesday.

"Everything seems to indicate that the field of maneuvering by
the government's opponents has been narrowed down as far as pos-
sible," the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper said.

Many still expect the 1,000-member Congress, consisting mostly of
conservative ex-Communist apparatchiks, to launch a fierce as-
sault on Yeltsin's government and its reforms.

But the president appears to have neutralized much of his opposi-
tion by combining his support of Gaidar with a willingness to
listen to his centrist opponents and possibly accept some of
their policy recommendations. Yeltsin also has lined up support
from various sectors of society, including many industrial direc-
tors who had previously been assumed to oppose market reforms.

He honed that strategy today by winning support from leaders of
Russia's internal republics, which control a huge swath of the
nation's territory and natural wealth. After taking his campaign
to the army on Monday, Yeltsin today won an endorsement of his
budget and his constitutional framework from the autonomous
republics.

Apparently as a gesture to them, he then fired the director of
central television, Yegor Yakovlev, a former adviser to Soviet
president Mikhail Gorbachev who had angered republic leaders with
what they view as Moscow-biased reporting of ethnic conflicts.

The upcoming Congress of People's Deputies has been billed as a
decisive showdown between Yeltsin and his conservative opponents.
They are fighting about the course of economic reform and the
structure of power in the new Russian state, with the conserva-
tive parliament wanting more control over the cabinet and its
policies.

Today, the opposition seemed to backpedal further when parliament
speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov said he would support a full year's
extension of Yeltsin's emergency powers to rule by decree if the
president agrees to cede parliament more authority after that.

Such offers of compromise are a long way from the opposition's
claims only a few weeks ago that it could unseat Gaidar, his
government and its policy of radical reform.  Analysts warn
against any predictions. The extreme "left-right" coalition of
former Communists and hard-line nationalists remains implacably
opposed to Yeltsin and his reforms and may show unexpected
strength when the Congress convenes next week.

Moreover, Khasbulatov's proposal by no means ensures that he or
other centrist leaders will support Yeltsin and Gaidar in the
Congress - or will be able to deliver the votes of the legisla-
tors, most of them former Communist apparatchiks. In a separate
interview today, the speaker sounded far less compromising, say-
ing that Gaidar "obviously has yet to learn the skills of manag-
ing a government."

"It is high time parliament stepped in and put things in order,
together with the president," he said.

Still, several other signs pointed to Yeltsin's strengthening po-
sition. Khasbulatov and the parliament today voted to approve
Yeltsin's appointment of Sergei Shakhrai to the powerful Security
Council. Shakhrai, an outspoken proponent of radical reform, was
anathema to the conservatives not long ago.

Friday, the parliament rejected an attempt by the "left-right"
forces to impeach Yeltsin.  In addition, democratic reformers'
success in gathering 2 million signatures on petitions supporting
a right to own and sell land provided evidence that market re-
forms still have substantial popular support.

Many analysts now predict some compromise between Yeltsin and the
"centrist" industrial lobby, which has pushed for more government
aid to stricken state-owned enterprises.  The compromise might
allow Yeltsin's program of massive privatization to move forward
while promising more targeted assistance to industry, and possi-
bly replacing a few cabinet members.

The firing of Yakovlev, who as editor of the liberal Moscow News
played a key role in the early years of Gorbachev's policy of
glasnost, or openness, brought an immediate rebuke from his
television station. The council of managing directors of the net-
work said he was being fired for political purposes, setting "a
very serious precedent for freedom of the press in Russia."

But Yakovlev, in a television interview this evening, appeared
more philosophical than angry, saying he believed Yeltsin had
acted with a "heavy heart."

"If my resignation helps at least to some extent to satisfy the
appetite of the opposition, which demands more and more resigna-
tions before the Congress, I do not object," he said. "If my
resignation promotes peace, the civil peace that we all long for,
let it be.  But if this is an only-too-familiar attempt to make
more room for lies, so that later we have to reconstruct the his-
torical truth, then it is a tragedy."<02:16 11-25C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)