In forcing through parliament unprecedented powers in a new office of president, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is positioning himself for a major transition of authority.
Gorbachev, who is expected to be elected president in less than two weeks, accomplished two things Tuesday when the parliament approved the draft law:He will be freed of the need to achieve consensus in the Politburo and the Central Committee to take tough, relatively quick decisions on everything from economic reform to putting down interethnic violence to staving off demands to secede from the Soviet Union.
His separate power base will enable him to abandon leadership of the Communist Party before it suffers a series of humiliating defeats this spring in regional and local elections.
If Gorbachev senses that the party vessel is about to sink, now or in the future, he can give up the captaincy so he isn't dragged down with the ship.
At the same time, once he grasps in his own hands the power to name the prime minister, veto legislation, declare a state of emergency and command the armed forces and the KGB, Gorbachev will have no place to hide if after a decent interval the enormous problems crushing the Soviet people do not show signs of being turned around.
Gorbachev appears to be gambling that four years, the term he seeks to be elected for when the Congress of People's Deputies convenes March 12 and 13, will provide time enough to demonstrate to skeptics that his reform program is beginning to offer a better life, particularly in terms of food, housing and consumer goods.
There is little doubt he can show near-term progress in foreign policy, but after years of shortage and privation, it's an improved standard of living on which he is most likely to be judged.
The common perception in the West is of a Soviet system where the general secretary sits at the head of the Politburo table, making broad policy decisions and then supervises day-to-day decisions through the secretariat of the Central Committee.
That may have been the way it worked in Stalin's heyday, but not since.
At a special meeting of the Central Committee in Moscow last month, Gorbachev moved to disestablish the ruling Politburo in favor of a Presidium, featuring representatives from each of the 15 republics, and to totally recast the 250-person Central Committee by requiring that each member face competitive election for the first time.
Gorbachev's latest moves before the Supreme Soviet could be considered the second shoe: passage of the broad new powers of the presidency.
Decisions that before could be made only by consensus within the party, may now be made by Gorbachev alone, under his presidential hat, subject only to review by a seemingly compliant parliament and less than independent courts.
"So the legislative branch looks like a pushover and the judiciary is hardly going to overrule the boss on anything important," one U.S. analyst said.
"I don't care if Gorbachev is a great philosopher-king, who comes next? He's creating the mechanism for a dictatorship."