But it said far more about the constitutional weakness lack of self-confidence and general
But it said far more about the constitutional weakness, lack of self-confidence and general malleability of Russia's parliament.Underlying the Duma's decision was the fear that a vengeful Mr Yeltsin would dissolve parliament and exercise his right to install a less acceptable premier without parliamentary approval.Hovering in the wings were the newly promoted First Deputy Prime Minister, Nikolai Asyonenko - a protege of the unpopular tycoon, Boris Berezovsky - and the hated Viktor Chernomyrdin, an ex-premier who is now the Kremlin's Balkans envoy.There was a strong air of resignation and even despair among those who flagged through Mr Stepashin, after a debate that lasted less than four hours. "We believe that with the country half in ruins we need some sort of stability," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, parliamentary leader of the centrist Our Home is Russia party. "Under our constitution it is the President who decides whom to appoint as Prime Minister. There is no point in resisting."Mr Stepashin yesterday seemed surprised by the Duma's lack of appetite for a battle, pointing out that he had expected "angry questions". In a speech to the chamber, he sought to quell speculation that he would take a dictatorial approach to economics, comparable to Chile's Augusto Pinochet "I am not General Pinochet," said the pudgy premier, "The name's Stepashin."But he also made clear that, unlike the popular and independently-minded Mr Primakov, he is the President's man. "Regardless of any political situation, I shall never allow myself to leave or betray the President,'' he said, almost hoarse with emotion.Although not overwhelmingly popular, Russia's new Prime Minister - Mr Yeltsin's fourth in little more than a year - is a pragmatist who cannot easily be categorised as liberal or hardline: his career has shown symptoms of both. With an orthodox party career behind him and a long association with the security apparatus, he is regarded by many of the ex-apparatchiki in parliament as a man they can work with, because he is cast in their mould.He takes over the premier's chair after a year as Interior Minister, a job which placed him in charge of more than a million police and troops and saw him grappling with political unrest, hostage-taking and criminality in the north Caucasus.
Previously he served a brief stint as Justice Minister, where he won some liberal respect by pushing for Russia's filthy prisons to be brought up to standards required by the Council of Europe.His biggest failure was, as head of counter-intelligence, to be among those who advised the President to send troops into Chechnya in late 1994 - advice which he later admitted to regretting.. A PROSPEROUS Parisian couple were accused in court yesterday of, in effect, reducing a young, illegal immigrant woman to slavery. The public prosecutor, Nicolas Blot, asked for one-year prison sentences against Vincent Bardet, son of the founder of a French publishing house, and his wife, Yasmina. The couple were accused of employing Henriette, a Togolose woman in her twenties, for four years without giving her wages or time off. The case was brought after a neighbour contacted a pressure group called the Committee Against Modern Slavery, which informed the police.
Mr Bardet, also a publisher, and his wife protested that Henriette was an au pair. They said they had given her a lump sum and were putting money into a kitty for her, to make sure that she was not cheated. "We were going to give it to her later," Mr Bardet told the court.His wife said: "There was no formal arrangement [about pay] because we were all in the family. We worked together."All these claims were disputed by Henriette and the prosecution. She said that she was expected to look after the couple's three children, to do the washing and the housework. She was not allowed to go out without permission, and then usually only to collect the children from school She slept on a mat in the children's room.