YELTSIN STANDS BY KIRIENKO NOMINATION.

President Boris Yeltsin is due to hold a roundtable meeting tomorrow (April 7) with leaders of Russia’s main parliamentary factions. Their goal: to persuade the president to withdraw his nomination of Sergei Kirienko as prime minister and appoint someone more amenable to themselves. The favorite of the Federation Council is the speaker of the upper house, Yegor Stroev, Communist governor of Orel Oblast. The Communists have also proposed several alternates, including not only Stroev but also the governor of Kemerovo Oblast, Aman Tuleev, and the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov. They also want to propose candidates for other ministerial posts. However, Yeltsin’s spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said over the weekend that the president both intends to stick with Kirienko and has ruled out the possibility of a coalition government. Yastrzhembsky also said that Yeltsin is prepared to discuss at tomorrow’s meeting only the policies of the incoming government, not its composition. (RTR, April 3; Russian agencies, April 3 and 4) If the Duma rejects the president’s nominee three times, the president can dissolve parliament and call for fresh elections. While neither side at present seems ready to compromise, both sides are anxious to avoid a general election.

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