Truce near following Kremlin crisis talks

Moscow - The Russian government and Communist-dominated parliament moved towards a truce yesterday after crisis talks held at…

Moscow - The Russian government and Communist-dominated parliament moved towards a truce yesterday after crisis talks held at the Kremlin just two days before a planned no-confidence vote. The executive and legislature were able "to agree on all the main questions", the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, said after talks with President Yeltsin, and the speakers of the lower and upper houses. However, with the two sides still wide apart on the government's tough 1998 draft budget, proposed tax code, land reform plans and other economic reforms, it was unclear whether the opposition could be placated. The Communist Party leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, said "for now we are not dropping" the no-confidence threat.