Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993 TAG: 9309230100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
Resistance to Yeltsin intensified at the Russian parliament building, or White House, as his erstwhile vice president, Alexander Rutskoi, insisted he is now Russia's president. Yeltsin, however, appeared confident and relaxed as he took an impromptu stroll Wednesday with his defense and interior ministers on one of Moscow's main shopping streets.
He promised to avoid bloodshed but also ruled out any dialogue with the conservative parliament which, he said, now no longer exists. He also belittled the parliament's decision Tuesday night to strip him of the presidency and appoint Rutskoi in his place. "This is not serious, this kind of amateurism which has nothing in common with the law or anything else," he said.
Legislative leaders, who with Rutskoi have led the opposition to Yeltsin and his reforms, announced they would prosecute anyone who defied their rule and adopted a new death penalty provision for government officials who "violently" disrupt Russia's constitutional order. Parliament also appointed its own defense, interior and security ministers, ostensibly firing Yeltsin's, and ordered them to assert control over police and security forces.
But with Yeltsin in control of state television and radio and many telephone lines in the parliament, the parliament's actions and Rutskoi's rival presidency seemed so far to be having little impact. Except for several thousand communists and ultranationalists waving red Soviet flags and shouting anti-Yeltsin and anti-West slogans outside the parliament building, Moscow and the rest of Russia were outwardly calm. There were no reports of unusual police or troop movements.
Yeltsin's defense minister, Pavel Grachev, said Wednesday that the military was taking the current political crisis in stride and would stay loyal to Yeltsin. He said he had canvassed commanders "of all ranks" and all had "definitively declared their full support for their commander in chief."
A Defense Ministry spokesman said the turmoil was not jeopardizing control of Russia's massive nuclear arsenal. "The nuclear button is in the hands of the president and the defense minister," the spokesman said, explaining that he meant Yeltsin and Grachev.
Interior Minister Viktor Yerin said the police are operating normally and no unusual disturbances had occurred. "We are fully in control of the situation and we are sure the armed forces and Interior Ministry organs and Interior Ministry forces are acting as a single bloc and supporting each other," Yerin said.
The Central Bank, meanwhile, reported that it is pursuing normal operations. "We have expressed our allegiance to Yeltsin's decrees," a bank official said Wednesday.
Parliament Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov's call for a nationwide protest strike against Yeltsin seemed to have fallen flat so far. And an effort to convene the country's anti-Yeltsin supreme legislature, the Congress of People's Deputies, had failed to gather a quorum. Although the political balance seemed to tip Wednesday toward Yeltsin, much still remained unclear. Most of Russia's regional leaders, key political players in this struggle, had little to say publicly about which side they would support. While Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said most were backing Yeltsin, there were some notable exceptions that might prove troublesome for the Russian leader. The legislature in Nizhny Novgorod, one of the most pro-reform spots in Russia, denounced Yeltsin's disbanding of the parliament and said the only way to solve the power crisis was to have early elections for both branches of government.
by CNB