Yeltsin Upbeat, Discounts Gains by Neo-Fascists

President Boris N. Yeltsin assured the world Wednesday that despite neo-fascist election gains, he remains firmly in charge until 1996, Russia has a solid new constitution and--who knows?--even the new Parliament may not be so bad.

In his first public comments on right-wing populist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky’s massive voter support, Yeltsin said soothingly that the election results should not be given a “tragic tenor.” More than anything, he said, Russian voters were simply seeking order, and now he plans to provide it.

“We have acquired a firm foundation for peaceful and stable progress,” Yeltsin, hale as ever despite swollen under-eye ridges that gave him a tired look, told a televised Kremlin news conference. “We can look to tomorrow with more confidence.”

He indicated that he would make no major changes in his painful economic reforms but said that if inflation continues to drop, he will consider boosting spending on programs to help the poor.

And “Gaidar stays,” he said bluntly, referring to the architect of Russia’s current reforms, First Deputy Prime Minister Yegor T. Gaidar, “which means that the policy he pursues stays.”

Yeltsin focused so firmly on the positive that he appeared reluctant at first even to condemn Zhirinovsky, although he denounced “primitive nationalism, outright lies and even dangerous provocations” that marked the campaign.

He reserved judgment on Zhirinovsky himself, saying that he is choosing to wait and see how the ultranationalist demagogue will behave in Parliament. Only when pressed about the threat of neo-fascism did he comment that Russia, which lost many millions of lives in World War II, “will not allow these forces to gain strength.”

He acknowledged that one-third of Russian army officers had voted for Zhirinovsky and said “measures were already being taken” in response.

In a political about-face, Yeltsin said that he has decided to create his own party rather than to keep trying to stay above the political fray in what others call his “father of the nation” mode. He hinted that the poor election performance by reformists who tried to struggle through the Dec. 12 vote without his direct support had helped change his mind.

The pro-Yeltsin Russia’s Choice bloc gained nearly 16% of the vote, compared to about 23% for Zhirinovsky’s misleadingly named Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Zhirinovsky advocates something more like a neo-fascist program, including rapid expansion of Russia’s borders and summary executions for criminals caught red-handed.

Yeltsin emphasized that Russia’s Choice will nonetheless be the biggest bloc in the new Parliament, which meets Jan. 11, because it gained far more members than Zhirinovsky in balloting determined by individual candidates rather than party lists.

“My view is that it is possible and necessary to work with Parliament,” Yeltsin said.

He denied that he planned to quickly dissolve the lower chamber of the Parliament, known as the Duma, even though the new constitution would allow him to if it turns down his candidate for prime minister three times.

Yeltsin also declared that Russia’s foreign policy will remain essentially the same, because it is determined not by the Parliament but by the president.

He spoke by telephone Wednesday with President Clinton, who described the Russian leader as “upbeat” despite the political turmoil arising from the parliamentary elections.

Clinton said that he and Yeltsin made preparations for their summit next month and said that Yeltsin was “pretty confident that the work of economic reform would continue” even though conservative parties would have substantial power in the new Parliament.

He also said, “I believe that Yeltsin will continue to speak firmly against anti-Semitism and against other forms of discrimination.”

Clinton added that he has no plans to meet with Zhirinovsky while in Moscow next month.

Yeltsin plans to meet with Zhirinovsky as a legitimate member of Parliament, but the Russian leader shied away from the suggestion that they could cooperate. He said he prefers the word “interact.”

Alexander M. Yakovlev, a prominent Russian legal expert, said Wednesday that although some reformists might want a more decisive condemnation of Zhirinovsky’s extremist views from Yeltsin, the Russian president is pursuing sound tactics.

It is too late, Yakovlev said, for Yeltsin to criticize the views Zhirinovsky espoused during the campaign, because the shameless populist is now a legitimately elected member of Parliament. Instead, he said, “let’s see how Zhirinovsky behaves in Parliament now. And if he persists in his extremist ideas, the president’s response will not be late in coming, I’m sure.

“There is one simple and legitimate way out: the constitution,” Yakovlev said. “If Zhirinovsky in his political or other activities violates its provisions and norms, the president can always use this constitution to politically destroy him.”

Although restrained about Zhirinovsky, Yeltsin was outspoken about the need to abolish the Security Ministry, the successor to the KGB that the Russian president decreed out of existence Tuesday.

“It was necessary to abolish the agency of the police surveillance over people,” he said. “For 75 years, people were spied on by this body that has been abolished. There will be no more shadowing of this kind.”

He presented the new constitution, which was approved by about 54% of Russian voters, as the cure for many of Russia’s ills. The constitution guarantees Yeltsin the right to serve out his term until 1996 and gives him broad, well-defined powers expected to help him push through reforms.

Times staff writer John M. Broder in Washington contributed to this report.