Local wins boost anti-Kremlin parties

The Russian Prime Minister, Mr Vladimir Putin, met leaders of the six main parties in the Duma yesterday and called on them to work with his government in its aims for victory in the war in Chechnya and reform of the economy. But he faces a tough task.

The results from the party lists system, in which pro-Kremlin parties did better than expected in the battle for half the seats in the Duma, have now been partially overturned by the results coming in from the British-style "first past the post" system which elects the other half.

In the individual constituencies, the combined pro-government parties managed only 15 seats, compared to 43 for the Communists, 29 for the Fatherland-All Russia coalition of Moscow Mayor Mr Yuri Luzhkov and the former prime minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, and five for the liberal opposition Yabloko party.

Mr Alexander Veshnyakov, the chairman of the State Election Commission, predicted that the state of the parties in the new Duma would be as follows: Communists (anti-Kremlin) 111, Unity (pro-Kremlin) 76; Fatherland-All Russia (anti-Kremlin) 62, Union of Rightist Forces (pro-Kremlin) 29; Yabloko (anti-Kremlin) 22; Zhirinovsky Bloc (pro-Kremlin) 17.

The balance of forces emerging from these figures is that anti-Kremlin parties will have 195 seats in the Duma compared to 122 for those who support the President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, and Mr Putin. The remaining deputies, more than 100 of them, will be made up of independents elected on regional issues and individual members of parties which failed to cross the 5-per-cent threshold in the vote on the party lists system.

The pro-western Yabloko party under the liberal economist, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, despite its small size, will under certain circumstances hold the balance of power if it votes on an issue-by-issue basis. Its economic policies are close to those of the pro-Kremlin policies and yesterday the former prime minister, Mr Sergei Kiriyenko, expressed hope that Yabloko would move from opposition to support the government.

There are, however, some strong differences between Yab loko and those deputies who support Mr Putin and Mr Yeltsin. These arise in the area of honest governance and the war in Chechnya. Mr Yavlinsky has consistently attacked the corruption which is endemic in the Yeltsin camp and has been one of the few politicians who has opposed the concept of "war to the end" in Chechnya.

It is hard to picture Mr Yavlinsky in the same camp as the notorious plutocrat, Mr Boris Berezovsky, and his even more shadowy associate, the oil magnate, Mr Roman Abramovich.

Mr Berezovsky was elected in the remote North Caucasus region of Karachayevo-Cherkessia while Mr Abramovich received his Duma mandate from the no madic reindeer herders of Chukotka, the peninsula opposite Alaska. Both men, supporters of Mr Yeltsin, will like all Duma deputies receive immunity from prosecution.

Another unorthodox deputy, this time in the Fatherland All-Russian party, will be the Sovietera crooner Dr Iosif Kobzon known, not for his musical prowess, as the "Russian Frank Sinatra". Mr Kobzon has been refused entry to the US due to his alleged Mafia connections.

A fire in a psychiatric hospital in northern Russia has left 17 dead and three people injured, the Emergencies Ministry said yesterday.