World

Defiant Yeltsin Clings To Power

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 8, 1998 / 3:58 PM EDT / CBS

Russia's increasingly isolated President Boris Yeltsin vowed on Thursday to serve out his term to 2000 after protesters called for his resignation, but a top legislator called for a referendum on whether he should resign.

More than a million Russians on Wednesday staged protests to demand Yeltsin's resignation and payment of back wages.

Addressing newly appointed senior military officers, Yeltsin said the armed forces owed their first loyalty to the president as long as he remained in office.

"That is as long as I am in office -- until 2000," he said in televised remarks.

But the Communist speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, Gennady Seleznyov, said the people should decide Yeltsin's fate, and called for a national referendum on whether the president should stay in office or resign.

"It would be logical after such a powerful act...and legitimate to call a referendum on whether the public trusts the president or not, should he stay or should he resign," he told a news conference.

Yeltsin, who met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Thursday, holds the overwhelming balance of powers under the Russian constitution and has his finger on the nuclear button.

But he has appeared disengaged and confused in recent months amid a devaluation of the currency in August and near meltdown of the former superpower's economy. Yeltsin has not given a television or radio address on the economic situation since the August devaluation.

Wednesday's protests and strikes across Russia were aimed at showing an overwhelming public response to Yeltsin's mistakes and shortcomings.

Police said meetings and rallies across Russia gathered 1.3 million people, far fewer than predicted by organizers. Kremlin aides said the low turnout had shown most of the nation stood by Yeltsin, but others suggested that apathy was to blame for the turnout.

Trade unions, however, said 25 million people marched or took part in strikes or small rallies and say they had managed to get their message across.

"The action has achieved its goals. The voice of millions has sounded all over the world," Mikhail Shmakov, the head of Independent Trade Unions Federation, told a news conference.

Prime Minister Primakov was quoted as saying he was glad that "this page of the history had been turned," but added the government had heard the message and must act to help people.

The need to formulate a coherent plan for Russia's struggliong economy was given further urgency Thursday when Russia's finance minister announced that the International Monetary Fund doesn't plan to give Russia a new loan installment until the government implements an economic reform program.

"They expect practical steps first," Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov said after returning from Washington, where he sought the release of loans from the IMF and other international lenders.

"f these steps help to stabilize the situation and are based on free-market instruments, then they will receive understanding and support," Zadornov said, according to the Interfax news agency.

The cash-strapped Russian government badly needs foreign loans to help pay its many debts, including overdue wages owed to many state workers. But Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov's government has yet to finalize an economic plan to address the crisis that hit in August.