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Tempers flared Thursday as lawmakers scrambled for last-minute concessions ahead of Friday's crucial vote on a government-backed plan to radically overhaul the nation's electricity sector.
"The situation is very tense," said Vyacheslav Volodin, leader of the pro-Kremlin Fatherland-All Russia faction in the State Duma.
The package of bills needed to begin breaking up Unified Energy Systems looked as if it had finally gathered enough support to pass through the Duma when Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov assured lawmakers Wednesday that the government would take full responsibility for the reform.
But after two years of heated debate on the on-again, off-again revamp of UES, factions that could make or break the deal said Thursday they were still concerned about tariff hikes and social instability as a result of the reform, indicating the vote would come down to the wire.
Fatherland-All Russia, a key centrist faction, again threatened not to back the bills unless the government reins in electricity prices.
"We insist that before consideration of the bills the government reverse its opposition to the Duma's vote of no confidence in the Federal Energy Commission," Volodin said. He said that the deputies from his faction will "think 10 times" about whether or not to support the bills.
Oleg Morozov, the leader of another key faction, Russia's Regions, said "the result will be hard to predict" because the debates will be very tense.
Most deputies have not yet made up their mind which way to vote, Morozov said. "Our group is not an exception -- we have supporters of the reform, hesitaters and those who in no way would vote for the bills," he added.
Passing the package of bills, which passed in the first reading last fall, requires 226 of the Duma's 450 votes.
Fatherland-All Russia has 49 seats, while Russia's Regions has 47.
A total of 171 votes have already been pledged in favor of the reform -- 83 from the pro-Kremlin Unity party, 56 from People's Deputy and 32 from the Union of Right Forces, with which UES chief Anatoly Chubais is aligned.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky's LDPR, which has 12 votes and supported the bills in the first reading, is uncommitted.
Independents have 21 votes.
Declared opponents have 145 votes, led by the Communists, Agrarians and the liberal Yabloko party.
Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinksy said the bills, despite amendments introduced by the government, "will create conditions for inflation, lead to the strengthening of oligarchs and put pressure on executive authorities."
Yabloko plans to demonstrate against the reform outside the Duma early Friday.
UES said it "has no doubt" the legislation will pass now that the government has put its weight behind it.
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Energy Sector Reform
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