Chernomyrdin Warns of Threat From Fascists

Acting Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin warned Sunday that fascists could come to power in Russia if Communist legislators prolong the country’s political stalemate and block the formation of a new government.

In an angry attack on the Communist Party, Chernomyrdin blamed the country’s current economic woes on 75 years of Soviet dictatorship and said the Communists’ plan to return to power by taking advantage of the current crisis will backfire to the benefit of Russia’s growing nationalist movement.

“You are hoping in vain that the wave you are making will bring somebody [from your ranks] to power,” Chernomyrdin said in a nationally televised interview. “[Fascists] will come to power upon this wave. And nobody will stop them.”

Chernomyrdin hopes to win confirmation today as prime minister when his nomination comes up for the second time in the Duma, the lower house of parliament. If the Duma does not confirm a prime minister after three tries, that will trigger the dissolution of the chamber and heighten Russia’s political crisis.

Seeking to build public backing for his candidacy, Chernomyrdin said the government will pay all back wages and overdue pensions and make available money in bank accounts recently frozen by the government. But he acknowledged that this will be accomplished with the printing of new rubles and that the value of the payments will be only a fraction of the money owed to millions of people.

“A mechanism is being developed to partially compensate for this,” he said. But fully reimbursing workers, pensioners and bank depositors by adjusting for the drop in the ruble’s value “is ruled out,” he said.

The popularity of President Boris N. Yeltsin--who reappointed Chernomyrdin prime minister two weeks ago but has done little else to address Russia’s struggling economy--has nearly bottomed out, according to a poll conducted by the respected Public Opinion Foundation.

The survey found that 66% of Russians thought Yeltsin should resign. Only 14% said Yeltsin should serve out his full term without a reduction in his authority, according to the poll of 1,500 people made public Sunday on the “Itogi” television news show. In a bid to resolve the political crisis before today’s Duma vote, Yeltsin will meet beforehand with leaders of the various parliamentary factions, including Communist leader Gennady A. Zyuganov.

The Communists have said they will propose several alternative candidates for prime minister. Among the names they have floated are Moscow Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov and acting Foreign Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov.

But Communist Party leaders also have talked about maintaining a deadlock that could prompt widespread unrest and mass demonstrations and could bring them back to power.

Chernomyrdin, appearing on the widely watched “Itogi” show, accused the Communists of creating a climate in which Russia’s fascist movement can build popular support. He was reacting in part to a segment on the program showing hundreds of black-shirted Russian fascists at a recent gathering raising their right arms in unison in the classic Nazi salute.

The image of fascists is especially disturbing to older Russians who remember the struggle against Nazi Germany during World War II, in which Russia lost an estimated 20 million lives.

“I would like to say to Zyuganov, who plays with words, ‘Here is who will come to power, not you,’ ” Chernomyrdin said. “Those fascists will have no mercy for anybody. We had this tragedy in this century already. Millions of Russians had to pay the price for that.”

Chernomyrdin called on his opponents in the Duma to end the stalemate and work together on a solution to the country’s economic problems. His call for compromise was echoed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexi II, during a service in Moscow.

“We hope the rulers of the Russian state will cease their bickering and confrontation and consider the abyss that they are approaching along with the entire country,” the patriarch said.

During the “Itogi” program, Chernomyrdin faced harsh questioning from viewers worried about bank failures and rapidly rising prices. One caller questioned whether Chernomyrdin wants to be prime minister again so he can avoid criminal charges for his management of the government during his earlier five-year stint in the job, which ended when Yeltsin fired him in March. Chernomyrdin admitted making mistakes that contributed to Russia’s economic upheaval but denied any wrongdoing.

In recent days, Chernomyrdin has offered the beginnings of a fiscal program that calls for printing money to erase domestic debt by Jan. 1 and then imposing an “economic dictatorship” in which companies will face the seizure of their assets if they do not pay their taxes and other obligations.

But his pledge to pay all the government’s domestic debts by year’s end rings hollow because he has offered no plan to adjust the payments to account for soaring inflation.

In the three weeks since the government stopped propping up the ruble, the currency’s value has fallen to about one-third of its previous level and is expected to keep falling. The government is so impoverished that it would have little hope of remaining solvent if it tried to pay all its citizens the true value of their back wages, pensions and bank savings.

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Talking Tough

Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, who hopes to win confirmation as prime minister today, blamed the country’s economic woes on 75 years of Soviet dictatorship and warned his Communist foes that their tactics could lead to a fascist takeover. Among his televised comments:

“Those fascists will have no mercy for anybody. We had this tragedy in this country already. Millions of Russians had to pay the price for that.”

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“In the situation in which Russia has now found itself, no classic anti-crisis measures can apply. We have fallen into such a nose dive that there are no simple ways out.”

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‘WAIT AND SEE’

Group of 7 is likely to delay any new help for Russia until its next government is in place. A8