No-confidence Vote in Duma Likely Next Week

MOSCOW (Reuter) - Russia's State Duma, the opposition-dominated lower house of parliament, will decide next Tuesday when to hold a no-confidence vote in the government, the chamber's Communist speaker said on Wednesday. Gennady Seleznyov told reporters the vote, sought by deputies who oppose the government's economic reform programme, was likely to be put on the Duma's agenda for discussion on October 15 or 16. Seleznyov said the decision would be taken by leaders of the various political factions which make up the Duma. "The date will be decided on Tuesday -- it (the vote) will be on either Wednesday or Thursday," he said. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, whose faction is the biggest in the Duma, says 146 deputies have signed a petition supporting calls for a no-confidence vote because of the government's economic reform course. They have ignored veiled threats by President Boris Yeltsin that he might dissolve the Duma if they keep dragging their feet over economic reform laws. He can dismiss the Duma if it votes no confidence in the government twice in three months.