Vacation Over, Gorbachev Goes Back to Politics

Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev re-entered politics on Tuesday, recommending that the bruising economic reform plan of his long-time nemesis, Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin, be altered to soothe public discontent and outrage.

Gorbachev, dressed in a seal cap to keep out Moscow’s sudden deep-freeze temperatures, met another elder statesman, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, at the Moscow think tank that will now occupy much of the ex-Kremlin leader’s time.

Gorbachev, 60, resigned on Dec. 25, then took what he called his first real vacation since he took control of the old Soviet Union in 1985. But he made it clear that he intends to remain deeply involved in politics.

True to his word, upon his return into the public eye on Tuesday, three weeks after resigning, Gorbachev jumped straight into the debate now causing divisions within the Russian leadership and among the populace.

In his boldest move at economic reform, Yeltsin on Jan. 2 lifted government price controls on food and consumer goods, sending some prices soaring by 300% and more. But to the shock and horror of consumers, the much higher prices that have pulverized their buying power do not seem to have brought more goods to market.

“We are living in a most difficult period, perhaps the most difficult one,” Gorbachev told a pack of reporters who awaited his arrival at the International Foundation for Social, Economic and Political Research, commonly known here as “the Gorbachev Foundation.”

Only about 10 days have elapsed since the price ceilings were lifted, Gorbachev noted. He said he wanted to refrain from expressing an opinion about the Yeltsin plan as a whole but noted that Russia’s leaders need to heed the protests and criticisms that it has sparked.

“Both the president and the government have to react to those impulses that come from different regions of the republic,” Gorbachev said. “I think they are very serious and deserve consideration for making the necessary corrections.”

He cited what he called three principal objectives to mend the battered economy and get Russia’s reform program on the right track: re-establishment of cooperation among the former Soviet republics; a rewriting of tax laws to provide greater incentives for production, and the dismantling of “dangerous” economic monopolies.

By urging a revision of Yeltsin’s program, Gorbachev, the Soviet leader for almost seven years, proved he is ready to raise his voice on crucial issues of public affairs. He also seemed to be striking a populist tone, urging Yeltsin to pay attention to the people and the various ethnic groups throughout Russia.

There has been no sign yet of an organized Russia-wide campaign against the surge in prices. But protests and incidents of unrest have been numerous and widespread. Street rallies were held in many of Russia’s cities on Sunday, miners in Vorkuta called a four-day protest strike and police in Karelia reported a rise in assaults on stores.

On Monday, Ruslan Khasbulatov, an economist who now chairs the Russian legislature, said the Russian government’s action this month in freeing prices from state controls has impoverished the population, at the same time that high taxes have hamstrung production.

Instead of controlled liberalization of prices, the Russian leadership chose an “anarchistic, uncontrolled increase,” Khasbulatov said. He called the Russian government, which Yeltsin has chosen to head himself instead of appointing a prime minister, “not only a failure but simply incompetent.” He called for its resignation.

But Yeltsin is standing fast as a likely showdown on the price issue looms in the Russian legislature’s chamber later this week. Bundled up against the cold, but strolling bareheaded and without gloves, Yeltsin visited the Bryansk region of Russia on Tuesday. The region was particularly hard hit by radioactive contamination from the April, 1986, Chernobyl disaster.

Speaking in front of a factory, Yeltsin urged Russians to wait another six or eight months before judging the price reform, suggesting that things will get better before the year’s end. “All civilized countries have gone through this,” Yeltsin assured his listeners.

He professed shock at the health and living conditions that he found in the region about 230 miles southwest of Moscow. At the city clinic of Novozybov, which has practically run out of medicines, Yeltsin said, “This is through the Mafia’s fault.”

Russian television showed him incensed at the sight of a grocery store that sold smoked salami--a pricey Soviet delicacy--but nothing more affordable.

“We must fire the director of the meat plant!” Yeltsin fumed. “We must simply kick him out of his job!” He said “provocateurs” are trying to make Russians believe that as a result of his economic program, only luxury goods at high prices are now available.

The price increases are certain to be the chief topic when the Russian Supreme Soviet convenes today for the first time since the plan went into effect. Yeltsin is scheduled to address the lawmakers on Thursday, with many expecting a balance sheet of the economic reforms.

Another fledgling institution also laid down a challenge to Yeltsin’s authority on Tuesday. The Russian Constitutional Court, after nine hours of hearings at its first session, ruled unanimously that Yeltsin’s decree merging Russia’s Interior Ministry with what remains of the KGB security service violates Russia’s constitution.

The merger had appalled many liberals, who worried about the rebirth of a monolithic, Stalinesque police force responsible for the mundane tasks of law enforcement as well as state security. Whether Yeltsin chooses to follow the 13-member court’s trail-blazing verdict will be a key test of his intention to allow checks and balances upon his power.

Yeltsin’s envoy to the hearing, Sergei M. Shakhrai, the Russian vice prime minister, indicated Yeltsin would obey the court, although he said its verdict “has a political, and not a legal, character.”

The talks between Gorbachev and Kissinger lasted 2 1/2 hours. The meeting at the foundation headquarters--a former Soviet Communist Party building in Moscow’s northwest--was closed to journalists, but news reports said the two men talked about the Commonwealth of Independent States that has succeeded the Soviet Union, relations with America and the future of the former Soviet armed forces.

Meantime, on Tuesday, prosecutors charged 12 former high Soviet officials with conspiring to seize power in the failed coup that quickened the demise of the Soviet Union. The hard-line officials--including the onetime prime minister, defense minister and KGB chief--could face 10 to 15 years in prison or a firing squad for their part in the August coup.

The suspects, six of whom formed an emergency committee that claimed to have taken power from an ailing Gorbachev, have already challenged the fairness of the proceedings.

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