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Yeltsin nominee rejected on first try

Kiriyenko
Kiriyenko gives his speech to the Duma Friday   

Prime minister-designate Sergei Kiriyenko gets 2 more chances for confirmation

April 10, 1998
Web posted at: 9:14 a.m. EDT (1314 GMT)

In this story:

MOSCOW (CNN) -- In a defeat for Russian President Boris Yeltsin, parliament on Friday rejected Sergei Kiriyenko, complaining that the nominee for prime minister was too young and inexperienced to solve Russia's enormous problems.

The defeat was expected and Yeltsin has two more opportunities to see Kiriyenko approved.

Yeltsin immediately re-nominated Kiriyenko, setting the stage for another vote in about a week.

Deputies in the State Duma -- the lower house of parliament -- voted 186 against his nomination and 143 for, falling short of the 226 votes Kiriyenko needed for confirmation. There were five abstentions. Not all 450 deputies were in the chamber.

"Honestly, I expected fewer votes," Kiriyenko said immediately after the ballot.

Kiriyenko's inexperience attacked

Before the vote, Kiriyenko addressed the Duma, painting a picture of economic crisis and vowing to get tough to revitalize reforms.


Zhirinovsky
During his Duma speech, Zhirinovsky referred to Kiriyenko as a "little boy"   

But following Kiriyenko's speech, the Liberal Democratic Party of ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky -- the only faction in the Duma that had pledged to vote for Kiriyenko -- announced it was withdrawing support because he had not said whether its members were being considered for the Cabinet.

Kiriyenko, 35, has spent only about a year in government, most of it as a junior member although he was energy minister for four months under former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.

"We used to have an experienced prime minister with gray hair, 60 years old and suddenly they got rid of him and put this little boy in his place," Zhirinovsky said. "You can't take a first-grader and put him into academics."

Russia is in its third week with an interim Cabinet following Yeltsin's abrupt dismissal of the previous government headed by Chernomyrdin. Yeltsin said he wanted to install a new government to speed up economic reforms, but his feud with parliament could drag on for weeks.

Kiriyenko confirmed on Friday he had proposed to Yeltsin that acting Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov remain in the cabinet.

Yeltsin: No other candidate

Duma
Parliament members listen to Kiriyenko's speech before voting   

In a radio address earlier in the day, Yeltsin said he had "no other candidacy" to present to parliament should Kiriyenko fail to pass the first vote.

Yeltsin said he would then renominate Kiriyenko a second and third time. Under the constitution he must dissolve parliament and call new elections if it rejects his candidate three times.

"Deputies must decide fast about the candidacy of Kiriyenko ... because I have no other candidate," Yeltsin said.

Yeltsin said every day Russia spent without a prime minister was a blow to the economy.

The president wants Kiriyenko to inject dynamism into market reforms and invigorate Russia's economy, which has felt the aftershocks of the crisis in Asian financial markets.

"Every day new problems which need to be addressed urgently are building up," Yeltsin said. "Those that already exist are becoming more acute."

Duma unimpressed with Kiriyenko's promises

In his 30-minute speech to the Duma, Kiriyenko tried to persuade the skeptical parliament that he was the man to pull Russia out of its economic mire.

"What's happening in the economy today? Let's honestly say that the situation is extremely complicated," he said.

Russia's economy had stopped growing, a third of budget revenues was spent on debt servicing and a quarter of all Russians lived in poverty, he told the Duma deputies as most of the country's acting ministers looked on from the gallery.

He said industrial growth and a strong currency were his priorities but promised to protect ordinary people.

"Our key instrument and main weapon is a strong state, strong authorities, a strong government," Kiriyenko said.

But within minutes of his speech and despite Yeltsin's appeal, parties lined up to confirm they would not back Kiriyenko.

"We are voting today not so much on the head of the government but on the course to get us out of this crisis," Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov told the chamber.

Most opposition parties said before the debate that they would vote against Kiriyenko or abstain.

Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty and Reuters contributed to this report.

 
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