Proposal to print money seen as ploy to win votes

The reported plans by Russia's acting prime minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, to print money in order to pay back wages is understood to be merely a ploy to gain support for his candidature in the Duma.

A large emission of money is favoured by many communist deputies even though it would fuel the already growing inflation which is under way in Russia. Mr Chernomyrdin knows the danger involved in printing money, according to sources, but is going along with the idea in order to be elected.

An immensely wealthy man, Mr Chernomyrdin is, however, most unlikely to put this idea into practice if the Duma votes him in.

In a separate development, Russians were given further evidence of how corrupt their politicians are when it was reported in Moscow yesterday by the independent news agency, Interfax, that the Deputy Finance Minister, Mr Vladimir Petrov, has been charged with accepting a $1 million bribe from the Escado commercial bank. The bank is one of many which has collapsed in the recent economic crisis.

President Yeltsin and leaders of the Duma's political factions meet this morning to discuss the politico-economic crisis. Supporters of Mr Chernomyrdin, made up of his own party, Our Home is Russia, and the extreme right-wing Liberal Democratic Party of Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky are hoping Mr Yeltsin will stand by his man and inform the political leaders that he will continue to support the acting premier up to and including a third vote in the Duma.

Should Mr Chernomyrdin's candidature be rejected a third time, Mr Yeltsin will be constitutionally obliged to dissolve the Duma and rule Russia without checks or balances until a new parliament is elected.

Mr Chernomyrdin's candidature is opposed, for differing reasons, by the Communists and their allies and by Yabloko, the Duma's only truly democratic grouping under the radical economist, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky.

It is believed that members of Mr Gennady Zyuganov's Communist Party could defect under pressure to the Chernomyrdin camp, while Mr Yavlinsky and his Democrats are likely to remain opposed in principle to Mr Yeltsin's nominee.

Officially, the Communists will press Mr Yeltsin today to drop Mr Chernomyrdin and put forward a new candidate. It is understood they would support the candidature of Moscow's populist Mayor, Mr Yuri Luzhkov.

An extremely popular figure in Russia's capital, Mr Luzhkov has shown strong nationalist tendencies, having called for the return of Crimea from Ukraine to Russia and from time to time has expelled non-Russians from the capital.

In the meantime, plans by Mr Chernomyrdin and his putative finance minister, Mr Boris Fyodor, to deal with Russia's economy have begun to emerge.

Mr Chernomyrdin has spoken of an "economic dictatorship" in order to get Russia's economy back on the rails. This would include the setting up of a "currency board" which would tie the rouble to one or a number of western currencies.

This approach would also rigorously limit the money supply and would therefore completely contradict Mr Chernomyrdin's stated intent of printing money to pay workers who have not received their salaries for months.

Analysts are unsure about what Mr Yeltsin will propose today but Mr Zhirinovsky in an interview with Reuters has said he is certain that Mr Chernomyrdin will by Russia's next prime minister.

If there is a secret vote after Mr Yeltsin's meeting with leaders this morning, Mr Zhirinovsky said, the Communists and Yabloko would probably refuse to take part, this leaving the way open for Mr Chernomyrdin's ratification.