Russia Politics

Bewildered Russians watched their nation fall further into economic and political turmoil Tuesday after President Boris N. Yeltsin's devaluation of the ruble. Political criticism of Yeltsin's move intensified, with the Communist-led opposition urging nationwide protests and renewing calls for Yeltsin's ouster. The currency fluctuated wildly throughout the day, eventually declining still more in value while a key index of Russian stock prices plunged 9%, continuing a long slide.

When acting Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin arrived at the Russian White House in triumph last week to claim his office as head of the government, he was not the first to walk through the door. Striding in ahead of Chernomyrdin was the man who many believe put him there: tycoon Boris A. Berezovsky. A billionaire banker who controls one of Russia's largest business empires, Berezovsky has emerged as one of the biggest winners in the high-stakes struggle for power in Russia.

Doing business in high-risk Russia never worried Dmitry Silin--until this month. Then the ruble tumbled. Now his years of hard work building up a medical supplies import firm are turning to dust, and there's nothing the bewildered entrepreneur can do but watch and wring his hands. The $100,000 worth of rubles that Silin's Russian clients paid him at the beginning of August is lost somewhere in a collapsing banking system. His bank says he might get some of it back "in two or three months."

The global economic firestorm further engulfed Russia on Thursday, and leaders here seemed even less eager than Japan's to undertake the reforms the rest of the world is demanding. Russian politicians responded with expressions of defiance and denial to the spreading concern that their vast country's economy is in free fall, the ruble threatened with devaluation and debt default a growing possibility. "Craziness" was how Prime Minister Sergei V.

The chairman of Russia's upper house of parliament rallied behind President Boris N. Yeltsin and Prime Minister Sergei V. Kiriyenko on Saturday, dismissing calls for them to resign over the country's financial crisis. "I think it would be premature to remove the government," Yegor S. Stroyev told Interfax news agency one day after the Duma, or lower house, criticized Kiriyenko and adopted a resolution urging Yeltsin to quit.

Setting up a showdown with Communist lawmakers over Russia's economic future, President Boris N. Yeltsin issued a veiled threat Tuesday to dissolve parliament if it does not quickly adopt a package of emergency fiscal measures. At a rare joint session of Cabinet members and lawmakers to address Russia's mounting financial crisis, Yeltsin and Prime Minister Sergei V.

Two weeks ago, the editor of the main opposition newspaper in Russia's Kalmykia republic went to meet a source who had promised to give her documents detailing corruption in the government. The editor, Larisa Yudina, never returned from the meeting. Her body was found the next day on the outskirts of Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, with multiple stab wounds and a fractured skull.

Fascism is on the rise in Russia, President Boris N. Yeltsin warned Monday as he called on Russians to reject totalitarianism as a way of solving their country's political and economic problems. Using the occasion of the 57th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of the former Soviet Union, Yeltsin decried the growth of skinhead and neo-Nazi groups among young people and said the organizations pose "a big danger for society."

Russia's opposition-dominated lower house of parliament failed to muster enough votes Friday to pass the 1998 draft budget on its fourth and final reading. Only 187 deputies in the Duma voted for the draft, well short of the required 226 majority in the 450-member chamber. Eighty deputies rejected it, and one abstained. Earlier Friday, deputies rejected all major amendments to the spending plan that the government said were needed to make the budget more realistic.

In the strange world of Russian politics, moving to a remote corner of Siberia can be the best formula for amassing power in Moscow. Such is the case for retired army general and ousted Security Council chief Alexander I. Lebed, who has launched his campaign for the presidential race in 2000 by announcing that he will run for governor of the Krasnoyarsk region in April. Lebed, who was fired by President Boris N.