Nezavisimaya Gazeta is coming back.


The financially troubled daily newspaper, which was one of the first mainstream alternatives to the official press in the early 1990s, will be back on the stands from Saturday three months after it was forced to suspend publication, according to the paper's new editor.


But Nezavisimaya's problems are far from over.


"We have to decide what we are going to do about backers," said Igor Kuzmin, Nezavisimaya's former financial director, who took control of the paper last week even though he has limited journalism experience. "Our legal status is still up in the air. We will make all our decisions as a collective."


But a collective agreement may be a difficult thing to come by at Nezavisimaya these days. Some of the paper's top journalists have objected strenuously to Kuzmin's selection by the entire staff -- rather than just the journalists -- to replace the former editor, Vitaly Tretyakov. Opponents say Kuzmin was selected after he promised to pay the staff long-overdue back wages.


"I am categorically opposed to the way the meeting was conducted," said Boris Kaufman, a deputy editor at Nezavisimaya.


Kaufman said a staff meeting on Aug. 30 voted out Tretyakov and picked Kuzmin was the first speaker.


"He promised that everyone would get paid," added Kaufman. This seemed to be the deciding factor for a workforce that had not received wages for several months.


Tretyakov could not be reached for comment. Kaufman said that his telephone at Nezavisimaya had been disconnected several days before the meeting, supposedly for unpaid bills.


When Nezavisimaya suspended publication in May, Tretyakov vowed the paper would reopen. He met at the time with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who promised aid, saying a paper that had contributed so much to the democratic process in Russia could not be allowed to perish.


But that aid has not been forthcoming.


"A lot of people have made promises," sighed Kaufman.


Kuzmin, the new acting editor, denied that there was a serious split in the workforce.


"A few journalists voted against me," he said. "But they are still working, preparing material for the Saturday edition."