|
Yeltsin vows to stay on
|
 |
August 28, 1998: 4:26 p.m. ET
But the 67-year-old Russian president won't run for reelection in 2000
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - His political glory days are a quaint memory. But Russian President Boris Yeltsin, onetime tank-climber and Communist crusher, displayed some of his vintage mettle Friday as he brushed aside rumors that he intended to quit over his country's financial crisis and vowed to serve out his full term, until 2000.
"I will not step down, I will not resign," Yeltsin asserted in a televised address beamed across his tattered nation's 11 time zones. "I will work to the end of my term in office under the constitution. In the year 2000, there will be presidential elections under the constitution and I will not run in those elections."
The remarks offered a ringing counterpoint to the torrent of innuendo and rumor that has swirled around Russia's 67-year-old president amid a collapse in Russia's finances and a sharp depreciation in the ruble that has sent global markets into a tailspin in recent days.
Yeltsin told the world in a televised interview that he had no plans to leave office or dissolve the lower house of government. And though he looked tired and pasty-faced and spoke in stiff, often halting tones, his words sought to dispel any doubts over who called the shots in the Kremlin.
"It is very difficult to remove me and, considering my character, it is practically impossible," Yeltsin said, in a challenge to Russia's opposition-dominated lower house of parliament, or Duma.
In recent days, some of those members have threatened to shove Yeltsin aside unless he accepted their rescue plan for Russia's economy.
That plan, vehemently opposed by western governments, is said to call for reinstatement of elements of the Soviet-era economy, including limited price controls and mass subsidies to shore up ailing state enterprises. The Duma has threatened not to endorse Yeltsin's nominee for prime minister, Victor Chernomyrdin unless its plan is accepted.
A return to stricter control?
Political insiders say Russia, under the reinstated reign of Chernomyrdin, could revert to a stricter state-controlled government.
Though Yeltsin showed a defiant face Friday, many Russia observers feel that his presidential powers have been vastly diminished, in practice, if not on paper.
On Thursday, the Kremlin swiftly denied rumors that Yeltsin had signed his own resignation warrant in an undated letter. Nonetheless, speculation is still rampant in some quarters that Yeltsin has tacitly agreed to cede key powers to his new prime minister and the Duma.
Alexander Kotenkov, Yeltsin's personal representative in the Duma, told reporters Friday that the president, while adamant about not stepping down, was prepared to make other concessions.
Kotenkov said that under a pact being negotiated with parliament members, Yeltsin might give Chernomyrdin powers to name his own government and to grant the Duma a greater say in ministerial appointments, something that eluded it in the former reformist government of Sergei Kiriyenko. The agreement would also bar Yeltsin from dissolving the parliament for a year.
Yeltsin's speech Friday came after the close of markets in Moscow. Russian shares hit historic lows in early trading Friday before rebounding to close up 5.7 percent. However, dealers cautioned that volume was extremely thin, exaggerating moves.
The Russian Trading System's benchmark RTS1-Interfax shares index rose 5.66 percent on Friday to close at 66.77 on light turnover volume of $2.2 million.
Traders said the index followed improvement in Western European markets, a day after the RTSI-1 gave up 17.13 percent.
Trading of the ruble, the beleaguered Russian currency, was halted on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange Friday to stop its steep decline.
The central bank, which canceled three regular sessions of foreign exchange trading at MICEX, set its official Friday rate at 7.86 rubles to the dollar.
In unofficial bank trading, the average rate for today delivery was 12.89 rubles to the dollar on reported turnover of $72.6 million.
A top reformer is sacked
Earlier today, Yeltsin returned from seclusion at a remote retreat and fired Anatoly Chubais, the country's top negotiator with international financial institutions.
In the United States, investors remained nervous over the effects of Russia's financial crisis on other emerging markets, but appeared to take the news in stride.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which has bounced back and forth all morning, was down 61.01 at 8104.97 following the announcement.
Yeltsin acknowledged in his interview that the Russian people have borne the brunt of financial difficulty. But he said he will take every step possible to insulate them from their financial vulnerability.
"It would have been naive to say that we shall take measures and so on and so forth that the people will not suffer," he said. "It would have been naive to say so. But, nonetheless, myself as the president, I'm obliged to say that we shall take every measure so that the savings of the people do not suffer."
Michael Barr, a Russian markets analyst with H. Rivkin & Co. in New York, said such words were intended to allay the jitters of his compatriots.
"He was trying to calm people," Barr said.
Barr said that for all the chaos of the moment, Yeltsin still represented the only hope for a stabilizing influence in the short-term.
"For now, he's been caught up in the whole whirlwind of events," Barr said. "I think as things sort out a little more his hand may be strengthened…now he's the main figure, the unifying figure."
Nonetheless, in Washington, administration officials are hedging their bets ahead of next week's Clinton-Yeltsin summit in Moscow, emphasizing that American policy to Russia is based on policies -- not personalities.
The economic and political turmoil in Russia has dramatically lowered expectations for that meeting, and indications are that officials are dismayed over a perceived trend away from economic reform in Russia.
Officials are also reportedly concerned that the deepening woes in Russia will impede progress on a host of other issues, from further nuclear arms reductions to U.S. efforts to curb what it views as unacceptable sales and transfers of Russian military technology to Iran and India.
--from staff and wire reports
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
