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- <text id=93TT1260>
- <title>
- Mar. 22, 1993: Yeltsin Loses Twice In Power Showdown
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Mar. 22, 1993 Can Animals Think
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 21
- WORLD
- Yeltsin Loses Twice In a Power Showdown
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Congress tries to strip his authority and rejects a Russia-wide
- vote
- </p>
- <p> Figurehead or dictator? Russian President Boris Yeltsin
- seemed to be facing just that stark a choice: he could either bow
- to a resolution passed by the Congress of People's Deputies
- stripping him of much of his power, or dissolve the parliament
- and try to institute a presidential regime propped up by the
- military. Before resorting to that "final option," though,
- Yeltsin played another card: he sought to put the question of
- who should wield the ultimate power in Russia to a nationwide
- vote. But the Congress, staying in session two extra days,
- rejected Yeltsin's plebiscite plan and put the President on
- notice that any attempt to hold a referendum on his own would
- be unconstitutional. The 1,033 deputies, who are mostly
- apparatchiks elected under the old communist regime, clearly
- believe they now have the upper hand over Yeltsin. But the
- battle is not yet over. The history of jockeying between Yeltsin
- and Congress has been one of endless postponement of a final
- showdown. When he meets Bill Clinton in Canada on April 3,
- Yeltsin may well not know how much power he will wield the
- following month--or week.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
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