Yeltsin Ready to Ban New Opposition Bloc

In a move that even some of his allies denounced as anti-democratic, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Tuesday prepared to ban the National Salvation Front, a new umbrella opposition group uniting his critics of all stripes across the land.

That action would “flagrantly violate all constitutional norms and citizens’ rights to express their political will,” asserted Eduard F. Volodin, a leader of the front, which consolidates nationalists, communists, army officers and militant neo-fascists.

But Yeltsin argued that the front poses a “terrible menace” to his efforts to dismantle the remnants of the Communist system and to build a democratic, capitalist society.

In its stark anti-reform manifesto, the front calls for Russia to reinstate price controls, cancel plans to sell state-owned industries to private investors and oust Acting Prime Minister Yegor T. Gaidar and his team of pro-market economists.

“The front calls for the overthrow of lawful authorities, destabilizes society and sets people against one other,” Yeltsin told the Collegium of the Russian Foreign Ministry in remarks carried by local news services. “This is impermissible, and urgent measures must be taken.”

It was unclear when Yeltsin might issue his “direct-action decree” disbanding the group. But his painting of his opponents as dangerous enemies seemed designed to rally reformers to his side as he prepares for the Congress of People’s Deputies in December, a session shaping up as the decisive confrontation between conservatives and progressives.

With ominous resolve, Yeltsin vowed to silence other critics and demanded the loyalty of all members of the Russian government.

“As for those who keep dreaming of the old days and sometimes even dare come up with indiscriminate criticism, despite holding high state and government posts, I want to warn them that this is inadmissible and will be seriously punished from now on,” he said in pointed comments apparently directed at Alexander V. Rutskoi, his conservative vice president.

Yeltsin’s tough stance toward the front, which claims it will use only the tactics of peaceful protest, reflects his determination to retain control over reforms in the face of an increasingly powerful opposition and gloomy economic news, analysts said.

Backed by an estimated one-third of Russia’s legislators, the front will probably push to impeach Yeltsin or to strip him of all but ceremonial duties during the upcoming Congress. If successful, this “constitutional coup d’etat “ could reduce Yeltsin to a figurehead who “reigns but does not rule,” prominent liberals warned in an open letter published on the front page of the newspaper Izvestia.

But Yeltsin’s attempt to smother such a legal putsch also could backfire. Three centrist parliamentary groups already issued a statement Tuesday, charging that “those who loudly called themselves democrats (have slid) into an abyss of totalitarianism.”

“Yeltsin’s action could prompt the opposition to consolidate, and groups who were passive or on the fringes might join forces with the front,” said Anatoli Stepovoy, a reporter who covers Russia’s Parliament for Izvestia, which is sympathetic to the president. “Even those who don’t like the National Salvation Front will realize that the steps Yeltsin has taken are not democratic.”

Yeltsin asserted that he can legally ban the front--which first appeared on the political scene Saturday when 2,000 Yeltsin enemies gathered in Moscow at a founding congress--because the group has not yet officially registered with authorities. The ban would be the first political clampdown since Yeltsin outlawed the Soviet Communist Party last year--a decree now being contested in Russia’s Constitutional Court.

But by revealing his growing nervousness about the conservative challenge, Yeltsin’s ban might weaken him just when he needs to marshal support to face down opponents in the Congress. Indeed, his foes seemed to welcome the president’s threats, predicting that Yeltsin would hang himself with his own dictatorial decrees.

“The president is panicking,” Ilya V. Konstantinov, chairman of the front, told Interfax news agency. He is “bringing himself closer to a total political fiasco with such actions.”

In what could be another sign of his political weakness, Yeltsin did nothing Tuesday as conservative legislators sent troops from a shadowy Parliament-controlled police force to guard entrances to Izvestia’s publishing house. Although the guards took no action, their presence underscored the legislature’s long-stated determination to take over Izvestia’s printing presses and place the newspaper under parliamentary control.

To refashion and revive Russia’s shellshocked economy, Yeltsin may ultimately be ready to seek even broader powers, which would amount to declaring a national state of emergency, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Shokhin said.

Warning that some army officers have proven disloyal to Yeltsin, their commander in chief, Shokhin suggested that the president purge the Russian army’s ranks as vigorously as he evidently plans to disband the front.

Although Yeltsin could take some heat off himself by shuffling his Cabinet, he reiterated support Tuesday for the beleaguered Gaidar, widely blamed for initiating the “shock therapy” that sent Russia’s already feeble economy into a tailspin early this year. Despite the grim news Tuesday that the ruble has plummeted to an all-time low of 393 rubles to the dollar, Yeltsin insisted that “the main thing is to keep and preserve Gaidar.”

Yeltsin also indicated he will not ask Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev, another lightning rod for conservative ire, to resign. But Yeltsin sharply and repeatedly criticized Kozyrev’s ministry for failing to develop a new ideology to fit the post-Cold War world.

Apparently anticipating Western fears that he is veering toward dictatorship, Yeltsin ordered his diplomatic corps to explain that the front threatens his reforms. “In the West, they don’t yet understand this,” he said.