Yeltsin, Communist Rival Put Spins on Russian Vote

Russia’s rival politicians on Wednesday snapped out dueling interpretations of the parliamentary elections that boosted the power of Communists and nationalists, with reformers and their critics claiming to understand voters’ deepest desires.

President Boris N. Yeltsin broke a two-day silence to announce that he considers the election results a call for continued economic reform.

He promised to continue steering Russia’s balky economy toward free-market growth, even though his political party took just 10% of the vote in Sunday’s election.

“We have no reason . . . to regard the election as a tragedy,” Yeltsin said. “We will be able to pursue the previous political course.”

Adroitly spinning the results his way, Yeltsin noted that only one in five Russian voters supported the Communist Party. Fewer than one in 20 backed the Communists’ rural allies in the Agrarian Party.

“I am confident that the overwhelming majority of Russians do not stand for communism,” he said.

Although the two most successful reform parties combined did not match the Communists’ strength at the ballot box, Yeltsin said most Russian voters believe in “reforms, democratization, freedom and human rights.”

He added that those goals have coalesced into “a policy which Russia will not abandon,” the Interfax news agency reported.

Not surprisingly, Communist Party leader Gennady A. Zyuganov offered a different take on the election. He dismissed Yeltsin’s hold-the-course talk as mere bluster.

“The government will make adjustments,” he said. “They are inevitable.”

Final tallies have not been announced, but Zyuganov predicted that his party will control up to 30% of the seats in the Duma, the lower house of parliament. He promised to use that platform to work on improving life for his party’s most loyal constituents--Russians baffled by inflation, battered by unemployment and disillusioned with capitalist reforms.

In a triumphant news conference, Zyuganov cast the election results as a clear vindication for the Communist Party.

Just four years after reformers banished the red hammer-and-sickle banner from the Kremlin, he said, voters have stated that they are sick of Communist-bashing.

“Anti-communism in Russia has finally been defeated,” he said.

The election commission has until early January to announce the final results.

Wednesday’s updated tally, reflecting about 70% of the balloting, showed the Communist Party with more than 21%; Vladimir V. Zhirinovksy’s nationalists with close to 11%; the Our Home Is Russia bloc headed by Yeltsin’s prime minister with about 10%; and the reformist Yabloko group with just over 7%.

Those four parties will dominate, but representatives from nearly 40 other groups won election to the parliament as well.

Two big-name politicians consigned to the Duma’s fringes--retired Gen. Alexander I. Lebed and former Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi--blamed their parties’ poor showings on fraud.

Lebed and Rutskoi, both gruff nationalists, told Reuters news agency that they suspect the elections were rigged. Their blocs failed to earn even 5% voter approval, surprising pollsters.

Despite the outcry from losing parties, foreign observers have described the polling as largely free and fair.