From: clarinews@clarinet.com (JEFF BERLINER)
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Message-id: <russia-congressU2A6815ae@clarinet.com>
Subject: Russian Congress tackles future course of country
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, politics,
	non-usa economies, economy
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 5:13:01 PDT
Location: soviet union
ACategory: international
Slugword: russia-congress
Priority: major
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 640; Id: z2245; Sel: xxigf; Adate: 4-6-815aed; Ver: sked
Codes: yigfrxx., yip.rsu., yiefrsu.

	MOSCOW (UPI) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin survived an early test
Monday as the Russian Congress convened to tackle political and economic
reforms, but many members were in the mood to tangle with the government
and scrutinize its policies.
	Deputies narrowly defeated a proposal to include on the agenda the
issue of confidence in government, voting down the proposal 447 to 412.
While that represented an early victory for Yeltsin, he wasn't
celebrating since he still had yet to present his program for scrutiny
and debate.
	Chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov warned the 925 deputies against turning
political disagreements into ``squabbles, into a struggle of ambitions
and personalities and further strain the situation in our society, which
is tense as it is.''
	Khasbulatov called for compromise, understanding and dialogue and
said -- with Yeltsin looking on -- ``compromise is needed by the president
more than by anybody else.''
	In anticipation of a fight, Yeltsin appeared before a gathering of
democratic groups on the eve of the Congress and urged them to
resolutely reject conservative attempts to roll back his reforms and
asked them to unite behind his reform program, which he acknowledged
needed some adjustments.
	The 6th Congress of People's Deputies was elected two years ago, well
before current reforms were launched, and with many Communists among its
members it reflects a more conservative bent that the reform-minded
Yeltsin administration.
	The Congress, a kind of super-parliament, was slated to tackle
economic reforms, consider a new Russian constitution and discuss the
political and social situation in the country. The deputies spent most
of the first day debating the agenda and demanding an accounting from
the government on the progress of its reform program.
	Deputies made it clear they wanted to hear from Yeltsin personally,
disparaging his plan to have the architects of his political andf
economic reforms describe them.
	Yeltsin acknowledged in his speech to the gathering of reform groups
that change has been neither quick nor easy nor free of problems,
saying, ``We have lived for too long in a topsy-turvy world for reforms
to proceed smoothly and painlessly.''
	Yeltsin conceded that Russians' standard of living has gone down and
crime has gone up, and said the country had to push ahead with market
reforms, but he acknowledged the need for ``corrections'' to ``ease the
tough initial period of reforms.''
	The government's ``shock therapy'' reforms will be amended, Yeltsin
aide Mikhail Poltoranin said, ``with a view to providing more dependable
shock-absorbers for the population.''
	The range of suggestions on the opening day of the Congress
illustrated deputies' concerns. After economic reforms, one of the main
concerns was the ethnic strife in Moldova and the Caucasus regions.
	Deputies defeated a move to put the legality of the Commonwealth of
Independent States on the agenda. They also rejected moves to declare
direct presidential rule, suspend Parliament and debate the fate of its
chairman, Khasbulatov. The leader of a coalition of nationalist and
Communist groups, Sergei Baburin, called for Yeltin's resignation.
	``We have many troubles in Russia,'' said one deputy, stating perhaps
the one thing on which all would agree.
	``I think the Congress should divide its general desire to perfect
everything in two weeks from the real problems,'' said Vladimir Lukin,
Russian ambassador to the United States. He said his main concern was
that Yeltsin retain ``enough power to continue economic reform.''
	Deputies suggested so many wildly varying agenda items that at one
point Khasbulatov said, ``Regarding (Czar) Peter I, should I put that on
the agenda, too?''
Xref: sparky clari.news.gov.usa:196 clari.news.election:247 biz.clarinet.sample:1154