The Russian President, Mr Yeltsin, meets his next challenge from parliament on Wednesday when his new acting prime minister, Mr Sergei Stepashin, faces a ratification vote in the Duma. But Saturday's failure by the Duma to start impeachment proceedings means that Mr Yeltsin can now threaten dissolution if his man is rejected three times.
The failure of the communist-nationalist-liberal alliance to get the two-thirds majority necessary to begin impeachment on Saturday appears to have been due to a lack of party discipline. The pro-western liberal leader, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, for example, said that only 90 per cent of the deputies from his Yabloko party obeyed the whip and voted to impeach Mr Yeltsin for starting the Chechen war. A similar percentage of slippage in the other parties would explain why the alliance fell 17 votes short of the 300 need to start the impeachment proceedings, which would have deprived Mr Yeltsin of his authority to dissolve the Duma.
The Duma is due to be dissolved in December in any event but Russian deputies are pampered by comparison to parliamentarians here and are loath to give up their many privileges. These include free Moscow apartments, subsidised dining facilities and shops which sell goods well below market prices. Each deputy has an office, secretarial staff and a personal computer supplied by the state.
The more venal deputies can be expected to break ranks again when Mr Stepashin's nomination comes before the Duma. The new premier-designate has a tough reputation as the man who relentlessly pursued the disastrous war in Chechnya. His nomination is also likely to be supported by the ultra-right group led by Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Known as "The Fireman" because his degree thesis in Soviet times was on "the role of the party in the Fire Brigade", Mr Stepashin holds the rank of General in the Interior Ministry forces that conducted much of the fighting in Chechnya.
Reports that Mr Yavlinsky, who was a strong opponent of the Chechen war, might be tempted to support Mr Stepashin's nomination have not been confirmed but it is likely the Communist party will, initially at least, vote against ratification.