Former finance minister Boris Fyodorov told a news conference that his 30-member faction of radical democrats, which opposed the government's budget in its successful first reading last week, would not vote for it in any of the remaining three readings.
"The draft budget is clearly unrealistic and doomed," Fyodorov said. "It is absolutely impossible to bring down inflation without a radical tax reform and drastic changes in the customs and border guard services."
In the first reading the Duma approved the framework of the draft budget -- including a forecast monthly inflation rate of 3 to 4 percent next year -- by 231 votes to 127, six more than the minimum necessary for passage.
Fyodorov said he was sure that the question of confidence in the government would come up in the future budget debate, echoing predictions by other liberals like Yegor Gaidar, leader of the Russia's Choice faction.
The former minister's opposition to the budget now stems from more than dissatisfaction with the concessions the government is willing to make to lobby groups, compromising its declared anti-inflationary policy. Fyodorov said the Chechen war expenditure could ruin next year's budget altogether.
"We do not have exact statistics, but our calculations show that the war costs 100 billion rubles ($28.5 million) a day," Fyodorov said.
His remarks echoed Gaidar's statement Wednesday, when the reformist leader asserted that government ministers who are members of his faction believed that the war was crippling for next year's budget.
Gaidar said the ministers had shared with him some confidential figures showing that more had already been spent on the operation than the government officially admits.
Finance Minister Vladimir Panskov told reporters last week that the Chechen operation had cost Russia 400 billion rubles. More recent official figures were not available.
Even Panskov, however, was worried about the possible effect of the war on the 1995 expenditures.
"We're hoping it won't last much longer," Panskov told reporters.
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