Lebed offers to take premiership as Chernomyrdin again faces defeat

As the acting Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, prepared for a second defeat at the hands of the Duma, the controversial General Alexander Lebed announced last night that he was prepared to accept the premiership if offered the job as a compromise candidate.

Speaking on the NTV television channel in Moscow Gen Lebed, who has had a turbulent relationship with President Yeltsin in the past, said that if he was offered the post he would be prepared to accept it.

Up to now, Gen Lebed has called for support for Mr Chernomyrdin, and last night's statement was being seen as an indication that he now feels Mr Chernomyrdin's chances of ratification by the Duma have been reduced.

But Mr Chernomyrdin received a boost, numerically if not morally, when the extreme right-wing leader, Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, announced that his block of 50 deputies would support Mr Yeltsin's nominee when the Duma meets this afternoon to vote once more on the ratification of Mr Chernomyrdin's nomination. Only one member of Mr Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party took part in the vote against Mr Chernomyrdin last Monday, the other 49, including Mr Zhirinovsky himself, abstaining.

The vote, which is expected at about 2 p.m. Irish time, is the second of a possible three votes on the premiership. The Yeltsin administration yesterday insisted that it would persist in putting forward Mr Chernomyrdin for a third time if, as expected, he is defeated this afternoon.

Should Mr Yeltsin's nominee be rejected a third time Mr Yeltsin will be obliged, by his own constitution, to dissolve the Duma and call elections within four months. He will also be entitled to rule without checks or balances during that four-month period.

The prospect of such unfettered rule is likely to make many deputies opposed to Mr Chernomyrdin reconsider in the run-up to a third vote. Many Communist deputies, who hold the key to success or failure in the Duma, are also quite wary of gaining power at a time when the Russian economy is in such dire crisis.

Until Mr Lebed's intervention last night it had been felt by many politicians that Mr Chernomyrdin might be the only politician prepared to take on such a thankless task. Other possible candidates for the premiership include the speakers of the two houses of parliament, Mr Yegor Stroyev of the Federation Council (Upper House) and Mr Gennady Seleznyov of the Duma.

Mr Seleznyov is a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation led by Mr Gennady Zyuganov but has not always acted in accordance with party diktat. Mr Stroyev, while not a member, has had strong links with the Communist Party.

If Mr Yeltsin sticks by his candidate, however, he still has a strong chance of getting Mr Chernomyrdin ratified.

But the Russian President is under personal pressure. Two polls published in Moscow yesterday put his support at abysmally low levels.

In one, 66 per cent of those polled said they felt he should resign. In another, 67 per cent blamed him for the parlous state of the nation's economy.

On the economic front the rouble was traded again on the Moscow International Currency Ex change and immediately plummeted to 13.46 to the US dollar as against 11 on the previous trading session and the 12.80 targeted by the Russian central bank.

In bureaux de change throughout Moscow rates ranged from nine to 14 roubles to the dollar.