Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9312160237
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and the Boston Globe
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
After days of cautious, muted response to the strong showing of ultranationalists and communists in Russian parliament elections, the White House enthusiastically backed Yeltsin and bluntly denounced the views of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whose party was the biggest vote-getter.
"No American, no thinking citizen of the world who read such comments could fail to be concerned," President Clinton said in Washington.
In Moscow, Vice President Al Gore was even harsher on Zhirinovsky, who in the past has said he considers Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and other countries to be Russian territory.
Gore said, "Let me say clearly in behalf of myself and in behalf of our administration and in behalf of our country that the views expressed by Zhirinovsky on issues such as the use of nuclear weapons, the expansion of borders, the treatment of ethnic minorities are reprehensible and anathema to all freedom-loving people in Russia, the United States and everywhere in the world. If you want a laboratory test of those views, look at Bosnia."
Clinton said he is determined to continue supporting political and economic reform in Russia and insisted U.S. policy toward the former Soviet Union will not change.
On the contrary, he said, the election results only underscore the need to find ways to make reform attractive to average Russians.
Shaken reformers made late progress in vote counting Wednesday, but had little hope of stopping the election juggernaut of Zhirinovsky and other anti-Yeltsin forces.
Russian newspapers projected that Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party, the Communist Party and other anti-reform groups would win two-thirds of the 450 seats in parliament. Parties supporting Yeltsin would win about 160 seats, the Moscow News said.
Sergei Shakhrai, a Yeltsin aide whose centrist Party of Russian Unity and Accord received 6.7 percent of the vote, said Wednesday that Zhirinovsky's win - while potentially dangerous - should not be overdramatized.
He noted that the new constitution, which voters approved Sunday, greatly increases the president's powers and limits parliament's.
Also, the contest among the various parties led by Zhirinovsky and others directly affects only one-half of one house of the new two-chamber parliament.
The other half of that house, the State Duma, will consist of deputies who ran as individuals, not party members. A preliminary analysis by Interfax on Wednesday indicated it will be a more even balance of reformers, anti-reformers and still-unknowns.
Zhirinovsky supporters won only a handful of seats in there.
Shakhrai said Wednesday that most members of the second chamber of parliament, the Council of Federations, are regional governors who have a stake in the status quo and will not be swayed by Zhirinovsky or Communists. Furthermore, the Council can veto any bill passed by the Duma.
by CNB