DUMA OPENS FALL SESSION WITH IMPEACHMENT AND NO-CONFIDENCE MOVES.

The Duma opened its fall session October 4 by preparing for impeachment proceedings against president Boris Yeltsin. According to Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, his Duma faction has already collected over 150 signatures to initiate this procedure. Although the impeachment motion failed in the Duma’s last session, Zyuganov says that chances are better this time and that proponents are ready to "go to the end." Women of Russia party leader Yekaterina Lakhova says that in addition to the measure against Yeltsin, her parliamentary faction, together with the communists and the Agrarian Party, is introducing a motion of no confidence in Viktor Chernomyrdin’s government. Russia’s Democratic Choice leader Yegor Gaidar sees such a motion as senseless, because the matter will in any case be decided by the people in the upcoming elections. Ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky has made clear that his faction would abstain from both the no-confidence vote on Chernomyrdin and the impeachment proceedings against Yeltsin. (2)

Parliamentary Controversy Over 1996 Budget.