Duma Centre not to vote down Cabinet

The reformist YABLOKO group and Communists will shortly call on the State Duma, parliament's lower house, to vote no confidence in the government. They will certainly not have Centrist support, said Anatoly Aksakov as he was summing up for the media a Coordination Council session of the four Centre groups.

The no confidence call is a blatant pre-election stunt with selfish interests behind it, pointed out Mr. Aksakov, first deputy leader of the People's Deputy group.

Ii will certainly badly undermine Russian social stability if parliament turns to pushing down the Cabinet when it ought to concentrate on next year's federal budget draft, he remarked.

The Duma Council will debate the matter tomorrow, and analyse a related initiative formally drawn by the YABLOKO, Communists, Agrarians and certain independent MPs, with a total 103 signatures, plus a draft Duma statement on the issue.

YABLOKO parliamentarians expect the vote to be appointed for the nearest Duma plenary session, of June 18.