Yeltsin Vows He Will Push Reforms : Russia: Declaring he is now ‘under the protection of the people,’ the president appears bent on pressuring lawmakers to approve a new constitution.

Calling his referendum victory “a sensation,” Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin announced plans Thursday to press forward with his reforms and declared his program and himself to be “under the protection of the people” from now on.

Henceforth, “any decisions that go against the will of the people, no matter who makes them, should not be fulfilled and must be canceled,” he said, referring to attempts by conservative lawmakers to block his reforms.

Addressing a meeting of his Cabinet, Yeltsin showed his intention to capitalize quickly on the political credit he gained when he won support from 58% of voters in Sunday’s referendum. Nearly 53% voted in favor of his economic reforms as well.

Unsmiling but robustly emphatic, the president said that, with his new popular mandate, he wants to foster the beginnings of economic stabilization that just lately have begun to appear after more than a year of steep decline. Russia’s drop in production, estimated at 20% last year, has nearly halted, Yeltsin said, and inflation has also slowed slightly.

“People should see in their daily lives the point of these reforms,” he said. “Our actions today will decide what this fragile balance will become--the beginning of the economic rebirth of Russia or only a short pause on the path” to full collapse.

Yeltsin’s tough talk against Parliament appeared aimed at pressuring lawmakers to approve a new constitution that he is pushing. He presented a draft of the new charter earlier Thursday to leaders of Russia’s 88 regions and republics, asking them to submit their comments and changes by late May.

“New Russia needs a new constitution,” he said, proposing that a constitutional convention to discuss the draft be held by early June.

Yeltsin’s allies say a new constitution is the key to overcoming the paralyzing struggle between the president and Parliament. The new constitution would disperse broad powers to Russia’s regions, create a strong presidency, dissolve the overgrown and widely despised Congress of People’s Deputies and leave a two-chamber legislature much like the U.S. system. But to get a new constitution adopted, Yeltsin will almost certainly need the support of the current Congress. And at this point, he appears to have no way to get it except by claiming, as he did Thursday, that the people’s will is behind him and must be obeyed.

Vladimir Lafitsky, a legal expert in Parliament and a critic of the draft constitution, said there is no legal basis for a constitutional convention and that a constitution must be adopted by referendum. If there is to be a referendum, Congress must agree.

A consitutional convention “is not provided for in the existing constitution,” Lafitsky said. “It’s possible to convene a constituent assembly only by destroying the existing state, by destroying the existing federation, with all possible results and consequences.”

Opposition lawmaker Nikolai Pavlov argued equally vehemently that “only the Congress has the right to pass a constitution. An attempt by any other organ is an attempt at a coup d’etat. “

On the economic front, Yeltsin called for tougher credit policies, harder work on bringing the ruble-dollar exchange rate under control and selective aid to the regions that carry out reforms most energetically.

“Let us agree now: Those of you who do not have reforms running smoothly, do not stretch out your hand to Moscow for help,” he said. “Those who are successful with their reforms--we will support.”

Despite a slowdown in the rate of Russia’s economic slide, figures for the first quarter of this year remained frightening, according to a report by Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin.

He said that Russia’s budget deficit now amounts to 10% of the gross national product and that oil production dropped 15% in the last year and coal production by 10%.

Among the Russian population, 45% of families with small children now fall below the poverty line, which is defined as a monthly income of about $10 per person. According to the cost of a basket of consumer goods, inflation in March hovered at 121% per month.

At Thursday’s session of the Supreme Soviet, Russia’s standing legislature, lawmakers continued to demonstrate their defiance to Yeltsin, this time by adopting a resolution on the Bosnian crisis meant to force the president into a more pro-Serbian position.

Lawmakers voted, 172-88, to require Russia’s representative at the U.N. Security Council to veto “possible military intervention by international forces in the Yugoslav crisis.”

The resolution appeared unlikely, however, to have much effect given Yeltsin’s clear warning Tuesday that if the Serbs continue to reject international peace plans for Bosnia, Russia will not stand by them.