Yeltsin's radicals face sack
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Your support makes all the difference.SEVERAL members of the youthful team of economists who launched Russia on the road to radical economic reform are likely to lose their jobs during the next month, but the head of the team, Yegor Gaidar, who is also the acting Prime Minister, will survive.
Despite denials from President Boris Yeltsin's press spokesman, Vyacheslav Kostikov, that seems to be the likely outcome after a week of speculation and rumours about the possible end- result of the battle between reformers and hardline Communists and nationalists in the Russian parliament.
In an effort to head off another blast from opposition forces in the session of the Congress of People's Deputies that opens on 1 December, President Yeltsin appears likely to sacrifice, or 'bargain' away, one or two of his less favourite ministers. Such moves would make way for more members of the Civic Union, the moderate coalition of factory managers who have been pressing for more representation in the government. Compromise with opposing forces to avoid confrontation has been Mr Yeltsin's tactic all along.
The Yeltsin 'bargain' may come sooner than expected. Last week, the confrontation with the opposition got out of hand with charges of drunkenness levelled at the Speaker of the parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov, a fierce Yeltsin critic, and accusations from the Mr Yeltsin's conservative Vice-President that the Gaidar privatisation programme was a swindle.
MPs from Democratic Russia - Mr Yeltsin's key support in the parliament - called for immediate action by the President. The MPs would like to see Mr Yeltsin hold a referendum to dissolve parliament and call new elections. The opposition would like a referendum calling for the abolition of the office of president.
Most commentators in the press think Mr Gaidar will survive. He will stay, they argue, despite the opposition's hatred for him because the centrist deputies who hold the balance of power in the largely conservative parliament feel that to remove him would be disruptive to the reform programme.
The opposition continues to be noisy. Over the weekend, a small group of Communists and nationalists formed a new 'National Salvation Front' dedicated to Mr Yeltsin's removal.
For the moment, Mr Yeltsin seems to be safe, despite his falling popularity, if only because no alternative is in sight. 'Neither the Communists, nor the patriots, nor the radicals have a leader capable of challenging Mr Yeltsin,' wrote the independent Moscow newspaper, Nezavisimaya Gazeta. 'So all today's hustle in the upper echelons of power in Russia actually boils down to a struggle for influence on its President.'
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