[PEN-L:443] Protesters in Moscow Say Yeltsin

["Frank Durgin" <fdurgin1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From "Russia Today  <russiatoday.com.

                                Thu., Oct. 08, 1998 Mos 1:58 p.m.

                                Protesters in Moscow Say Yeltsin
                                Guilty of Treason

                                MOSCOW -- (Reuters) Russian
                                protesters accused President Boris
                                Yeltsin of treason and theft as they
                                dangled a hangman's noose outside the
                                walls of the Kremlin on Wednesday.

                                Tens of thousands of striking workers
                                marched through Moscow's streets to
                                protest about unpaid wages and
                                economic hardship, and demanded
                                Yeltsin's resignation outside the ancient
                                fortress as the president worked inside.

                                "Yeltsin made a beggar out of me," read
                                one banner tied to the hangman's rope.
                                "Hang Yeltsin," it said, above a crowd of
                                some 70,000 gathered just off Red
                                Square at the end of a march across the
                                capital.

                                "Yeltsin betrayed his people and now
                                we're answering him back," said
                                pensioner Aleksei Kustaryov, who
                                receives 400 rubles ($25) a month. "He
                                has to go."

                                Inside the Kremlin, Yeltsin, looking
                                more isolated than at any time in his
                                seven years in power, got on with what
                                his spokesman called a "normal working
                                day."

                                Some elderly protesters carried portraits
                                of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the
                                founder of the Soviet state Vladimir
                                Lenin.

                                Even an image of Cambodia's Pol Pot
                                was carried aloft with a slogan reading:
                                "The only good bourgeois is a dead
                                bourgeois."

                                The red flags of the Communist
                                opposition outnumbered the yellow,
                                black and white of monarchists, who
                                favor a return of the czars, and the trade
                                unions' blue banners.

                                "I want socialism back. Democracy has
                                stolen everything from us. Under
                                socialism we had everything," said
                                pensioner Nina Mostenko.

                                            But the Communists' fervor
                                            faded when party leader
                                            Gennady Zyuganov
                                            (pictured) failed to speak at
                                            the end of the rally and bitter
                                            evening replaced the day's
                                crisp sunshine.

                                The protesters' main demand was not a
                                return to the old days.

                                The majority called for a new start and
                                vented their anger at the way post-Soviet
                                market reforms have left most Russians
                                greatly worse off.

                                "I don't care about Yeltsin, I just want
                                someone who would pay us for our
                                work," said trade unionist Nikolai Bal.
                                ( (c) 1998 Reuters)





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