Senior State Duma deputies Monday gave their support to Russia's embattled new privatization chief, Vladimir Polevanov, and proposed to hold back the sale of shares in oil companies to prevent what they saw as the fire sale of a strategic national industry to foreigners.


Sergei Burkov, head of the Duma's Privatization Committee, told a news conference that his committee and several others were proposing to postpone the sale of the government's stake in oil companies, which is expected to bring state coffers over 5 trillion rubles ($1.25 billion) under the draft 1995 budget.


Burkov said the committee would propose a budget amendment this week under which the privatization and budget committees would "correct the structure of revenues from privatization," meaning that the 5 trillion rubles would come from sources other than the sale of oil companies.


The money would come from hiking the rates that privatized enterprises pay for land lease and renting buildings from the state, Burkov said. He did not provide details.


He added, however, that the proposal was not designed to undermine the privatization program, but would protect state property from being sold too cheaply.


"It does not mean we're against this sell-off in general," he said. "The stock market situation is becoming unfavorable and demand is impossible to estimate. Under such circumstances we can only sell these shares cheaply with the sole purpose of patching holes in the budget. As a result, Russia could lose control over strategic industries."


Share prices in Russian oil companies have been declining over the past several weeks as foreign investors stayed out of the market, driven away by economic and political uncertainty in the country.


While criticizing recent statements by privatization chief Polevanov for their "sharpness," Burkov and his colleague Yevgeny Gusarov, deputy head of the Duma's Industrial Committee, said they supported many of Polevanov's ideas. The deputies also said a decision to fire Polevanov would be "hasty."


Polevanov has raised eyebrows by proposing to renationalize "wrongly" privatized companies and by banning foreign nationals from the State Property Committee headquarters in Moscow. On Friday, First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais said Polevanov would be dismissed.


But neither of Polevanov's moves, for which President Boris Yeltsin has labeled him "inept," drew criticism from the legislators Monday.


"Polevanov's statements were too sharp and many of them need to be corrected," said Burkov. "But we agree with him when he speaks of bringing order to the State Property Committee and correcting the mistakes of the first stage of privatization."


Burkov quoted Interior Ministry data, according to which 1,684 crimes were committee in the field of privatization in January to November of 1994.


"As to foreign specialists -- much of what has happened was justified," he added, referring to Polevanov's order barring foreigner for the State Property Committee's headquarters. "You can be sure that foreign executives knew about the plan to sell these oil companies before many government officials."


"The majority of the members of our (industrial) committee agree with Polevanov," echoed Gusarov. "Many enterprises have been privatized by criminal structures and these mistakes should be corrected."