Yeltsin Stirs Up Crisis as Diversion, Foe Says

Parliament Chairman Ruslan I. Khasbulatov accused President Boris N. Yeltsin on Saturday of whipping up a constitutional crisis to divert attention from Russia’s real problems and warned that it could lead to catastrophe.

“Alongside the general weakening of our very statehood--and we are a state with nuclear missiles--such actions by people in power as the adoption of the constitution may lead to the final collapse of the Russian Federation and loss of control,” Khasbulatov told foreign correspondents.

“And that means that those nuclear, biological, chemical and other types of weapons that are very dangerous to the environment and to other states may end up out of control,” he added.

Khasbulatov, speaking at a press luncheon, portrayed the conservative Parliament which he heads as a bulwark against Yeltsin’s attempts to impose dictatorship through his proposed new constitution.

Yeltsin views the draft document, which would enhance his presidential powers at Parliament’s expense, as a way to resolve months of deadlock with the Congress of People’s Deputies and clear the way for further reforms.

Yeltsin, who won majority support for his rule and reform policies in a national referendum last month, is trying to break the political impasse by sidestepping Parliament and summoning leaders of Russia’s regions to work on a new basic law.

The president has called a special constitutional assembly of regional bosses to meet next month to draft, and possibly approve, the new document. His plan won unexpected support Friday from Khasbulatov’s deputy, Nikolai Ryabov, a sign that conservative resistance to Yeltsin may be weakening.

Khasbulatov said the country could easily survive for at least a year or two with the old constitution, and accused the Yeltsin camp of using the crisis to divert attention from more vital problems like corruption and mismanagement.

Khasbulatov said it is dangerous to involve “unconstitutional structures” in the process of constitutional revision, but refused to say how he would respond if Yeltsin’s assembly approves a constitution without consulting Parliament.

“We will respond in a constitutional way,” he said.

Yeltsin’s proposed basic law would scrap the Congress in favor of a new two-tiered standing Parliament that the president would be empowered to dissolve.