Dear pen-l'rs, Here is Weir's Sunday night article. Bes regards, Greg ***** From: Fred Weir in Moscow Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 For the Hindustan Times MOSCOW (HT Aug 30) -- In the wake of an unprecedented pact with Government for re-dividing power in Russia, the parliament is expected to meet in special session Monday and should quickly approve Viktor Chernomyrdin as the crisis-wracked country's new Prime Minister. "This is the first time in six years that we are coming to agreement on the definition of the problems in which Russia finds herself," the independent Interfax agency quoted Mr. Chernomyrdin as saying Sunday. The deal, worked out after rumour-filled days of negotiations between the opposition-led State Duma and the interim government of Mr. Chernomyrdin, would halt conflict between Russia's quarrelsome branches of power for a year and a half while they work together to overcome the nation's financial collapse. Gennady Seleznyov, the Communist Speaker of the Duma, told journalists that parliament would likely meet Monday to endorse Mr. Chernomyrdin, and that the new Prime Minister would subsequently consult with the Duma over further cabinet appointments. Only the four so-called "power ministers" -- defence, security, internal affairs and foreign affairs -- will still be directly named by the President, he said. Russia's Independent Television Network said the deal included the formation, within a month, of a special commission on revising the country's authoritarian Constitution, which was authored by President Boris Yeltsin after he physically eliminated his parliamentary opposition in 1993. Though no details were immediately available, the powerful Communist Party has urged that more powers be devolved to Parliament, including the right to approve cabinet appointments. At the heart of the accord is a non-aggression pact between the key branches of power, in which Parliament promises not to vote no-confidence in the Government and President Yeltsin pledges not to dissolve the Duma. Both sides agree to let Mr. Chernomyrdin's new government work for a year and a half without the kind of sweeping personnel changes that Mr. Yeltsin has repeatedly effected lately, and which are now seen as a prime cause of the current political volatility. Under the deal, the Duma agrees to swiftly begin work on a comprehensive anti-crisis program to arrest Russia's dire financial plunge, protect the living standards of the population and draw investment to the depressed industrial sector. The arrangement must still be approved by Mr. Yeltsin, who has recovered some of his characteristic defiance after a week in which many Moscow observers wrote him off as a spent force. "I want to say that I'm not going anywhere," Mr. Yeltsin told Russian TV on Friday. "I'm not going to resign. I will work as I'm supposed to for my Constitutional term. In 2000 there will be an election for a new President and I will not run." Nevertheless, the pact reached Sunday carries the implication that Mr. Yeltsin's sweeping presidential powers will be sharply reduced in coming months. There appears to be a broad consensus among Russia's political elite that Mr. Yeltsin's course of economic reform has been a failure, and his erratic decisions -- such as changing Prime Ministers twice in five months -- are a major source of political instability. "Not only in the West, but also many people here in Russia underestimated the peculiarity of Russia, as well as the mentality of Russians," Mr. Chernomyrdin told the German weekly Welt am Sonntag in answer to a question about the free-market advice Russia has received over the past six years. "We were offered standard economic schemes. But measures that are good for a small country like Latvia, for example, do not work in Russia, or even bring the opposite results." Over the past two weeks the rouble has plunged almost 40 per cent in value, prices on groceries and other commodities have begun to shoot up and many of Russia's troubled banks have refused to pay depositors their money. The new government's first task will be to calm this situation before real panic and social upheaval begin. But Mr. Chernomyrdin scotched rumours that Russia is about to enact drastic Soviet-style economic policies, such as price controls, a ban on rouble convertibility and re-nationalization of strategic industries. "We have already joined the world economy, and there will be no return to the past." he said. ``The main thing is to make sure people don't suffer. For this we should use our power, and we will use it as much as necessary." -- Gregory Schwartz Dept. of Political Science York University 4700 Keele St. Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Canada Tel: (416) 736-5265 Fax: (416) 736-5686 Web: http://www.yorku.ca/dept/polisci