Russian Lawmakers Set to Vote on Impeaching Yeltsin

Russia’s Communist- dominated lower house of parliament moved steadily Friday toward impeaching President Boris N. Yeltsin on at least one of five counts pending against him.

But members of the Duma also gave signs that they might stand down on a second front in their battle with Yeltsin and confirm the president’s nominee for prime minister, Sergei V. Stepashin--an outcome to Russia’s power struggle that would amount to a tense cease-fire.

The impeachment vote is expected today. Speaker Gennady N. Seleznyov predicted that one of the articles of impeachment, denouncing Yeltsin for launching a war in 1994 against the separatist republic of Chechnya, would garner the needed two-thirds majority to pass.

“Ninety percent of the Russian electorate are urging us to vote for impeachment,” Seleznyov said.

A vote to impeach would be a strong act of protest against Yeltsin, but it would have little chance of ousting him. According to the Russian Constitution, the vote requires confirmation by the country’s two highest courts and the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council. All three bodies have many Yeltsin supporters.

“Calm down, esteemed politicians,” said Federation Council member Leonid Y. Roketsky, governor of the Tyumen region. “It is time to think about the stabilization of the economy and our entire life.”

Yeltsin has shown signs that he is deeply outraged by the impeachment drive. The latest was his decision Wednesday to fire Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov, a move that incensed parliament and escalated tensions.

Stepashin paid courtesy visits Friday to a string of parliament leaders, pledging to continue Primakov’s policies and seeking their support when his confirmation comes up for a vote Wednesday.

After the meetings, even hard-line Yeltsin foes tended to adopt a moderate tone, saying they would wait to hear Stepashin’s ideas before deciding which way to vote. That contrasts with their rhetoric in previous nomination battles.

“There has been no categorical rejection of Stepashin by the Duma,” said Sergei N. Baburin, a hard-liner and the Duma’s deputy speaker. “Stepashin has a chance.”

Nonetheless, the mood of the deputies seemed to shift by the hour.

“I’m shocked that some people are saying that the Stepashin nomination will pass, maybe even on the first vote,” said Vladimir A. Ryzhkov, head of the pro-Kremlin Our Home Is Russia faction. “People who say that are living in some kind of parallel universe.”

The showdown between president and parliament has the potential of throwing Russia into a deep constitutional crisis: If the Duma votes to impeach, Yeltsin is barred from disbanding the Duma until the proceedings are completed. But if the Duma votes three times to reject the president’s nominee for prime minister, the constitution requires the president to dissolve the Duma.

However, a vote to impeach coupled with confirmation of Stepashin would give parliament an important symbolic victory while depriving Yeltsin of a constitutional basis to disband parliament.

Yeltsin faces impeachment on five charges: instigating the collapse of the Soviet Union; calling out tanks against the hard-line parliament in 1993; ruining the armed forces by shortchanging their funding; committing genocide against the Russian people by wrecking the economy; and waging war against Chechnya.

“I am grateful that Yeltsin broke the totalitarian regime, destroyed communism and brought democratic freedoms to Russians,” said Vladimir N. Lysenko of the centrist Russia’s Regions party. “But all this was years ago. Everything since then has been a spectacular failure.”