Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 27, 1993 TAG: 9309270083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
Across town, the hardliners who have sought to impeach Yeltsin and name their own government dug in their heels.
"If need be, we will stay here for a year," said parliament Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, leader of the approximately 100 lawmakers who remain holed up in the building known as the White House.
Late Sunday, in a potentially significant development, a top aide was quoted as saying he believed Yeltsin would agree to simultaneous elections for parliament and president. But Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai stressed he was expressing his personal opinion, an official said.
Shakhrai's comments came at a meeting of regional leaders on the crisis, in which they urged both sides to cancel the decrees they have issued and hold simultaneous elections immediately.
Yeltsin has set new parliamentary elections for December and said presidential elections could be held in June. Khasbulatov's parliament, elected in Soviet times, wants simultaneous elections in March.
Yeltsin dissolved parliament Tuesday after struggling for 18 months with hardline lawmakers opposed to his reforms. Lawmakers responded by impeaching Yeltsin and naming Vice President Alexander Rutskoi as acting president.
Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, speaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," said that if there is a "growing mood" in the country, Yeltsin might compromise on his plan.
But Kozyrev said he believes simultaneous elections are "very, very dangerous," and could destabilize the country. "Someone has to be in office," he said.
Yeltsin, accompanied by Defense Minister Pavel Grachev and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, waded into surging crowds on Red Square for a free concert by the Washington-based National Symphony Orchestra and its conductor, former dissident Mstislav Rostropovich.
The president waved and smiled, then took his place at the front of the crowd. He cracked a smile again when earblasting cannons went off during Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture."
An announcer urged "faith in the president and in Russia's future," and the crowd responded "Hurrah! Hurrah!"
A longtime backer of Yeltsin, Rostropovich has said he wanted the concert to give Russians hope and confidence during the transition to a post-Soviet democracy.
by CNB