Kremlin Intrigues Rage In Yeltsins Absence
In a speech to the upper house of parliament, Chernomyrdin defended Alexander Lebed over a controversial agreement which has halted fighting in Chechnya, even though the security chief is depicted by Russian media as the prime ministers main rival.
But any prospect for calm in the turbulent political scene while President Boris Yeltsin prepares for a heart operation was dispelled by the publication of a hard-hitting newspaper interview with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Luzhkov, 60, dismissed speculation that he has any immediate ambitions to become president. But he did not rule out a presidential bid at some point in the future and criticised all the men most likely to be his rivals in a presidential race.
I tell you with full responsibility - I have not prepared and am not preparing (a presidential bid). What the future will bring, I dont know, but today I do not want to (make a bid), Luzhkov told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. Luzhkovs popularity in Moscow was underlined when he won a second term as city mayor with a landslide election victory last June but his appeal outside the capital in hard to gauge.
His potential rivals are widely regarded as Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, Lebed and Chernomyrdin, although the prime minister has not said he has any presidential ambitions.
Luzhkov praised Chernomyrdin as a strong economic manager who was keen to do good for Russia, but also said he had failed to achieve stategic goals.
There is no state strategy in the economy, he said.
He said Zyuganovs time had passed with his failure in the presidential election runoff in July, in which Yeltsin won a new four-year term. And he blasted Lebed over the Chechnya peace deal, which he says makes concessions to separatist rebels, and for his public yearning for power even while Yeltsin was ill.
I do not understand, what moral right does a person, who willingly agreed to work in the presidents team, have to declare his ambitions for power now? Luzkhkov asked.
He accused Krmelin chief-of-staff Anatoly Chubais of overstepping his authority in Yeltsins absence.
Such comments will be unwelcome for Chernomyrdin. He wants to end the jostling for position as Yeltsin, 65, prepares for surgery in the next two months.
The 58-year-old prime minister has been given some of Yeltsins duties and will temporarily assume all his powers when he goes under the knife. But internal conflicts, particularly involving Lebed, have surfaced with alarming regularity.
Lebed and Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov are now openly sparring, with the Chechnya peace deal the main focus.
Chernomyrdin backed Lebed but avoided too severe a reprimand for Kulikov, saying his criticsm would be on the ministers conscience.
In other political intrigues, Yeltsin sacked former confidant Shamil Tarpishchev as Russias sports chief on Monday and a former aide to Tarpishchev on Sunday hit out against Yeltsins sacked close aide, Alexander Korzhakov.
The pro-communist opposition newspaper Sovietskaya Rossiya said Russia was drifting dangerously towards disaster and criticised Chernomyrdin, Lebed, Yeltsin and Chubais.
Alas, Russia today brings to mind a ship which is out of control in a storm, when the waves and the wind are carrying the vessel towards the rocks. But the captain is lying in his cabin with a hangover and his aides are tearing the helm away from each another, it said.