Gorbachev

MOSCOW -- After basking in international acclaim at the European summit in Paris, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev came home to a two-front attack yesterday from Russian leader Boris N. Yeltsin and from a group of conservative parliamentarians.Mr. Yeltsin challenged Mr. Gorbachev to a contest the Soviet president probably could not win: a national referendum on the expanded powers for his presidency that he has demanded to keep political and economic order."We keep saying 'the people will not understand,' 'the people do not need this' and 'the people are waiting,' " Mr. Yeltsin told reporters at the Russian parliament.

MOSCOW -- Using his new powers for the first time to move toward a market economy, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev ordered yesterday that wholesale prices for many goods next year be negotiated between buyer and seller rather than set by the state.The presidential decree, unveiled on the evening television news, suggested that Mr. Gorbachev has decided to implement economic change unilaterally without waiting for an indecisive parliament to approve an economic plan."There are certain key issues today on which we as a country and as an economy cannot wait until a program is completely worked out," said Soviet Finance Minister Valentin S. Pavlov, discussing the decree in a televised interview.

RAMBOUILLET, France -- Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev came out squarely yesterday against a military attack to force Iraq out of Kuwait, calling instead for stricter sanctions by the United Nations and a diplomatic initiative from Arab states to end the crisis.Speaking after four meetings with French President Francois Mitterrand Sunday night and yesterday, Mr. Gorbachev said that he thought Iraq was beginning "to heed the view of all the United Nations."The position of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "is not the same as it was some time ago," Mr. Gorbachev said.

WASHINGTON -- Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev told President Bush yesterday that he was pursuing some new ideas for a diplomatic solution to the Persian Gulf crisis, but the White House was not optimistic about their chances for success.Mr. Gorbachev outlined his proposals to Mr. Bush in a 25-minute telephone call yesterday morning. Soviet Ambassador Alexander Bessmertnykh met twice with the president later in the day to follow up on the discussions.Mr. Bush told reporters the Soviet leader was "thinking innovatively" but would not describe the ideas in detail.

MOSCOW -- In a direct confrontation with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Boris N. Yeltsin and the leadership of the Russian Federation officially warned the Soviet parliament yesterday not to grant the emergency powers requested by Mr. Gorbachev.In an emotional speech Friday, Mr. Gorbachev asked for the power to override existing law in connection with the planned transition to a market economy.But Russian Federation officials, citing Mr. Gorbachev's statement that he might have to dissolve some elected bodies, expressed fear that he could use special powers to dissolve the Russian parliament and impose direct presidential rule in the largest of the 15 Soviet republics.

MOSCOW -- Russian leader Boris N. Yeltsin said yesterday that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had accepted in principle his proposal for a coalition government including representatives of the Russian Federation and other republics.But Vitaly Ignatenko, spokesman for Mr. Gorbachev, said the Soviet president had no plans to ask for the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov. Apparently, Mr. Gorbachev foresees a coalition government's taking shape not immediately but in the long run, as part of a reorganization of the Soviet Union under a new treaty to be signed by the republics on a voluntary basis.

TOKYO -- The Soviet Union faces "civil showdown" and the "chaos from which dictatorship emerges," President Mikhail S. Gorbachev warned yesterday, and he asked the advanced world to accept the "resolve" he must show to save his country.Seizing the opportunity presented by his first public speech outside the Soviet Union since last fall, when he began a series of widely criticized and sometimes bloody steps against opponents, Mr. Gorbachev was unsparing in the dire picture he painted of political and economic conditions at home.

MOSCOW -- President Mikhail S. Gorbachev got a double boost yesterday as the Soviet parliament approved a liberal foreign investment law and the Russian parliament, urged on by Boris N. Yeltsin, provisionally backed the proposed union treaty.Both votes will substantially strengthen Mr. Gorbachev's hand in his meeting July 17 with leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations. They offer the West reassurance that there may after all be a Soviet Union to invest in and that investors may have some chance of getting their profits out."

MOSCOW -- Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said last night that a final plan for the transition to a market economy has at last been completed and that "the whole country" now must determine its fate."

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine -- The White House spent much of yesterday peering through the fog of swiftly moving events in the Soviet Union, hoping to discover the "true" character of restored President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.President Bush and other U.S. officials said they believe that the failure of the conservative coup against Mr. Gorbachev should now free him to pursue more vigorously the radical economic reforms favored by the West and by Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.Although Mr. Bush lifted a brief freeze on the mostly technical economic assistance already extended to the Soviets yesterday, his aides said that there would be no major cash forthcoming until the reforms are put in place.