Yeltsin Unveils Plan for Strong Presidency, U.S.-Style Legislature

President Boris N. Yeltsin on Friday offered Russians a vision of their future if they support him in this weekend’s referendum: private land ownership, a stronger executive branch and a U.S.-style legislature.

Yeltsin said he sketched the draft constitution so citizens would know “a vote of confidence in the president is a vote not for an abstract and bright future but for concrete, legal guarantees, civil rights and human values.”

The new constitution is likely to become entangled in the same bickering that has paralyzed his reforms since fall. The Communist-dominated Congress is likely to object to many of the proposals--particularly the creation of a bicameral legislature that would cost the lawmakers their jobs.

Yeltsin’s aides have said they might try to bypass the Congress by convening a “constitutional assembly” to approve the new charter.

The draft borrows from European and U.S. systems to create a powerful president who could under certain circumstances dissolve the legislature.

Other provisions would enshrine the right to private property, including freedom to buy and sell land, which had been banned under the Soviet regime and is still subject to limits and confusing laws.