A Statement from the Kremlin yesterday laconically announced that President Boris Yeltsin was "pleased" with the Duma's vote, by 251 to 25, to validate his choice of Mr Sergei Kiriyenko as Russia's new prime minister.
"Reason had triumphed over emotion," the presidential statement said; but triumph was hardly the correct word for a victory which was much closer than the final voting figures suggested.
Mr Kiriyenko's candidacy and the Duma's fate came perilously close to defeat and dissolution. The key vote came early yesterday when the Communists, the largest party in parliament, proposed an open vote on Mr Kiriyenko's nomination rather than the standard secret ballot.
They knew that some of their own members would vote for their jobs rather than their principles if the vote was secret. They were joined in this move by the democratic Yabloko faction of Mr Grigory Yavlinsky which also strongly opposes Mr Yeltsin. The result of that vote, remarkably, turned out at 188 for an open vote and 188 against. The regulation secret ballot was therefore decided on and from then on it was certain that Mr Kiriyenko would win.
The Communists and Yabloko had previously declared that they would not participate in a secret ballot. The final vote was 251 for Mr Kiriyenko with 25 against, but with 169 deputies refusing to participate. Had the earlier ballot gone the other way it seems likely that Mr Kiriyenko might have lost and the Duma would have been dissolved.
Mr Kiriyenko would also have lost without the support of the extreme right-wing leader Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whose so-called Liberal Democratic party voted enbloc for Mr Yeltsin's candidate. The dramatic highlight of the prevote debate centred on this crucial support, with Mr Yavlinsky accusing Mr Zhirinovsky of accepting bribes from the Yeltsin camp. Mr Zhirinovsky retaliated by accusing Mr Yavlinsky of being in the pay of "the American imperialists".
