This Time, Boris Yeltsin Gets a Mandate

Russians turn out in strength for Yeltsin, reviving his hopes for reform

BORIS YELTSIN CALLED THE RESULTS A "SENSAtion," and he was right in more ways than one. As the embattled Russian President celebrated victory in a nationwide referendum, some 3,000 angry procommunists took to the streets of Moscow Saturday in an unusually violent protest. They clashed with riot police, leaving at least 150 demonstrators and police injured. And while preliminary results gave Yeltsin a 58% vote of confidence and a surprisingly high 53% approval for his economic reforms, political opponents denounced the vote as meaningless; he failed to get the absolute majority of all registered voters needed to force early elections that...

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