Boris Yeltsin's government survived a critical second no-confidence vote Saturday, signaling a new willingness by the president and parliament to seek political compromise.
Parliament's vote ended Russia's worst political crisis in nearly two years, although major differences remain over economic and foreign policy as well as the war in the southern republic of Chechnya."The crisis has been settled on the basis of compromise with the president's direct involvement," said Prime Minister Viktor Cher-no-myr-din. "It has been a difficult process. All sides showed political responsibility and tolerance."
The seizure last month of 2,000 hostages by Chechen gunmen touched off the clash between Yeltsin and parliament. Lawmakers criticized the government for failing to prevent the tragedy, launching rescue attempts that killed a number of hostages and then allowing the Chechens to escape in return for the hostages' release.
The no-confidence vote Saturday was 193-116, far short of the 226 needed in the 450-seat State Duma, parliament's powerful lower house. Forty-eight members abstained. In response, Chernomyrdin withdrew a government measure that would have forced lawmakers to declare confidence in the Cabinet.
Yeltsin used a combination of compromise and strong-arm tactics to defeat the motion, even threatening to dissolve parliament if it passed Saturday's no-confidence vote.
When the Duma passed its first no-confidence motion June 21, a defiant Yeltsin dared the Duma to "sign its own death sentence" with a second vote.
In the days that followed, however, both Yeltsin and Chernomyrdin met with lawmakers to seek a way out of the crisis. Both admitted that mistakes were made, and Yeltsin backed up his words with action late Friday.
The president fired three of his security ministers who were blamed by parliament for their botched handling of the hostage episode in the southern city of Budyonnovsk.
Replacements have not been announced for the three Cabinet members - Interior Minister Viktor Yerin, Federal Security Service chief Sergei Stepashin and Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Yegorov.
Lawmakers said Yeltsin's government likely would have survived Saturday's no-confidence vote even without the firings, but they praised Yeltsin for his action.
"I think the president made a good step, a step toward the Duma, that will have an effect in the long-term," said Yegor Gaidar, a former prime minister who broke with Yeltsin over the war in Chechnya.
Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, a longtime Yeltsin ally, was the only security ministers to survive. Like the other three, he had offered to resign at Yeltsin's request.
Yeltsin alienated most allies in parliament by sending 40,000 Russian soldiers into Chechnya last December, an operation that was planned and launched by his security ministers. In recent days, though, he has opened negotiations with the rebels and given his representatives broad powers to forge an agreement.