Political Mess May Undercut Reform in Russia, 2 Officials Say : Upheaval: They paint a picture of a government locked in conflict between administrators and lawmakers, stymied by the most basic problems.

On the eve of a critical juncture in Russia’s economic reforms, two prominent politicians warned Thursday that the vast federation is still in such a political mess that it may prove incapable of carrying through the change it so desperately needs.

They painted a picture of government locked in conflict between administrators and lawmakers, unable to solve the most basic management problems or to launch the most essential aspect of economic reform: the selloff of state-owned factories, stores and housing to private owners.

Moscow Mayor Gavriil K. Popov, who confirmed at a press conference on Thursday that he plans to resign by year’s end, said he feels that he has to leave because it had become impossible to work in a system that blocked his every move toward reform. The Russian government was strong enough to block the attempted conservative putsch in August, he said, but it “is not adequate for the complex tasks we have to accomplish.”

Most galling for Popov was his inability to push through a plan for rapid privatization in Moscow, a program stonewalled by deputies of both the City Council and the Russian legislature.

In an explanation released Thursday for publication, he told the 9 million residents of the Soviet capital: “You Muscovites voted not for Popov, but for the program he proposed, and now this program is under threat of being scuttled, and to be absolutely honest, has already been effectively cut off.”

Popov reached the conclusion, he said, that “someone had to sacrifice himself so that Moscow and the country would at least understand that their last chance is in danger.”

A key Yeltsin aide, Valery Makharadze, expressed similar concerns on Thursday, predicting that local councils and legislatures could prove the most dangerous political factor in the hard times expected to begin on Jan. 2, when the Russian Federation frees most prices from the state control that has kept them artificially low.

Russia need not fear a military coup, but it should worry that the “soviets,” or local and republic councils of deputies, will revolt against Yeltsin’s executive government, Makharadze told reporters. He heads the service of inspectors meant to enforce Yeltsin’s commands in regions around the republic.

“So I have a feeling that the soviets will act as a foundation for the coup,” he said. “Well, not all of them, but some of them will. If you want to know who will act this way and where, just take a look at the minutes of the Congress of People’s Deputies,” the old Soviet “super-parliament.”

“Look at how some people voted, because there are regions, whole regions already, where the reforms no longer find any understanding,” Makharadze added.

Popov complained that the 468 deputies of the Moscow City Council routinely torpedo his decisions, although they are not technically supposed to interfere in the daily running of the city. “No matter what decision the mayor or the government takes,” he said, “within a day, the council will issue a contradictory decision.”

The root of the problem, Popov said, is that many deputies on both the local and republic level were elected in 1989 and 1990 because they were perceived as offering an alternative to the Communist Party. But, in fact, they had no constructive program to offer and now mainly function as a veto machine.

Deputies tend to be strong on defending “the interests of the masses,” he said, “but the question is what to do in this country to feed and produce, not to distribute” what already exists, he said.

His arguments reflected in part a growing split among the liberal politicians known here as democrats, who now occupy most of the key posts in the government and are united in two umbrella movements known as Democratic Russia and the Democratic Reform Movement.

One branch, typified by Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi, emphasizes social guarantees and labor protection; the other, of which Popov is a leader, stresses market-based economics and the need to allow businessmen a free hand to develop the economy.

Popov complained that the Russian Supreme Soviet, under the influence of the social-oriented deputies, had passed painfully high taxes on banks, stock exchanges, profits and personal income.