A Moral Victory, if a Hollow One : Yeltsin’s foes remain, referendum or not

The challenge facing President Boris Yeltsin now is how to translate the impressive vote of confidence he won in Russia’s first fully free election since 1917 into a political action program to speed the reforms his country so urgently requires. His enemies have already served notice that they will continue doing all they can to sabotage that effort.

Vice President Alexander Rutskoi and Parliament Chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov, the most prominent among those foes, have rushed to dismiss the results of Sunday’s national balloting as indecisive and of no consequence, largely on the specious claim that too few citizens bothered to vote. In fact, it looks as if about 62% of the eligible electorate went to the polls, a considerably better showing than occurs in U.S. presidential elections.

Had Yeltsin failed to win the endorsement of a solid majority of voters for himself and--by a lesser percentage--for his economic reforms, his enemies would, of course, be shouting from the rooftops today that the voice of the people is the voice of God, and that Yeltsin must resign. Yeltsin, who had promised to step down if he failed to win, can now fairly claim a moral victory in the non-binding referendum, something no Russian leader has ever been truly able to claim.

A moral victory, though, is no substitute for having the solid votes in the Congress of People’s Deputies that Yeltsin must have to pursue his reform policies, and that support just isn’t there. Last month the 1,033-member Congress fell just 72 votes short of impeaching the president. Last Sunday’s vote, even with its apparent backing for early parliamentary elections--the next Congress isn’t scheduled to be chosen until 1996--does nothing to change the composition or, probably, the attitude of the obstructionist legislature. The popular will may be clear, but the forces behind legislative gridlock--mainly those who were favored under the Communist system and who are losing power and perquisites as it is dismantled--are still firmly in place.

Yeltsin can be expected to use all the presidential powers that remain to him to push ahead with his economic reforms and his plans for a new constitution. Certainly his credibility should be helped as economic and technological aid promised by the major Western countries is forthcoming. That includes about $1.8 billion in new help pledged by President Bill Clinton but not yet approved by the U.S. Congress. Had Yeltsin lost the referendum the aid package would probably have been shelved. But he didn’t lose, and as a result Russia’s prospects seem a little brighter than they were a week ago. It is those prospects--and even more, the grim alternative to them--that Congress must keep in mind when it debates and votes on aid to Russia.