Yeltsin Visits Duma During Budget Debate

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Boris Yeltsin arrived unexpectedly at Russia`s State Duma lower house of parliament on Friday as deputies were debating the government`s 1998 draft budget, witnesses said. They saw the Kremlin chief enter the building and head for the chamber where the budget is under severe scrutiny from opposition deputies who dominate the lower house. Yeltsin has only once before visited the Duma. Just minutes earlier, Yeltsin had told the Duma in an unprecedented appeal: "I ask you not to drag your feet but to vote for the budget at once." The reformist government views the budget as a vital tool to craft a recovery in 1998 after years of economic depression in post-Soviet Russia and recent world market turmoil. "You are all state officials of a big world power which is introducing democracy, learning to live according to the principles of democracy," Yeltsin told the deputies. "Not only Russia but the whole world is awaiting the Duma`s decision, because the whole world financial system is in fever...Your work (on the budget) is not over, you will take part in the second, third and fourth readings. They are awaiting the budget in every small settlement, village and town."