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National Salvation Front Has a Platform in Place

The National Salvation Front, a new political bloc uniting hardline opponents to Boris Yeltsin, has resolved on measures at an inaugural meeting to force the president and his government to resign.


Ultranationalist leaders denounced Yeltsin's reforms as "anti-people policies" at the meeting Saturday, according to Interfax.


They pledged to mobilize support in regional governments in order to pressure Russia's legislators into ousting Yeltsin at the Congress of People's Deputies, which is to convene on Dec. 1.


They also warned that if the legislature failed to force Yeltsin out at the Congress, they would reconsider the matter at their own emergency gathering.


Across town from the Front meeting, about 2, 000 demonstrators waving red Soviet flags and brandishing anti-Yeltsin slogans gathered under Moscow's largest statue of Lenin at Oktyabrskaya Square. They, too, demanded Yeltsin's ouster.


The Front's co-chairmen, who include the legislators Sergei Baburin, Mikhail Astafyev and Vladimir Isakov as well as Konstantinov, repeatedly accused Yeltsin of betraying his people. They called his recent formation of a council of the heads of Russia's republics unconstitutional.


About 1, 400 delegates registered at the one-day meeting, which was heavily guarded by black-uniformed security guards.


At the very least, the Front has said that it will not allow Yeltsin to renew his special powers to rule by decree, which expire the day that the Congress convenes, on Dec. 1.


The National Salvation Front represents a wide range of political parties opposed to Yeltsin, including pro-communists such as Communists of Russia, and nationalists such as Fatherland.

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