GENNADY SELEZNEV

, a Communist, seriously proposed the formation of a coalition government The revised budget went back to the Duma in November and passed three of the four required votes in that body.

When President Yeltsin flip-flopped and tried to strike the spending he had agreed to three months ago, the Duma cried foul. After a day’s delay, the Duma turned the re-revised budget down, 226-187 and then recessed until March 4. The government now has ten days to consider whether to yield, fight, or negotiate. Given his off-with-their-heads approach to problem-solving, President Yeltsin might prefer to dissolve the Duma, which under certain circumstances he can do. That would force new parliamentary elections.

It is surprising that in the middle of this turmoil the Managing Director of the