President Yeltsin's impeachment debate lapsed into chaos yesterday when star witnesses skipped the historic hearings and outraged deputies took their anger out on each other.
Communists and ultra-nationalist deputies spent much of the second session railing against the short time allocated for speeches and the failure of television stations to transmit the State Duma hearings live.
"I think there is a bit of confusion," said Our Home Is Russia leader Mr Vladimir Ryzhkov, whose chosen experts all failed to appear. "We deeply regret that no one came. It undermines the value of our debates."
The first witness who did show up - a lawyer called by the Communist Party - launched into a partisan speech, to the dismay of nationalists who were expecting expert testimony. "These are not expert testimonies," complained Mr Ryzhkov.
The former defence minister Mr Pavel Grachev, who played a key role in the disastrous Chechen war, and the former Soviet leader Mr Mikhail Gorbachev were two notable absentees.
Mr Gorbachev in his defence said he found the Duma's invitation letter too "obscure and formal" and elected to stay at home.
Mr Yeltsin is charged with disbanding the Soviet Union, illegally shelling parliament with tanks in 1993, ruining the armed forces, and committing "genocide" through mistaken economic policies and easier access to birth control. A fifth charge - responsibility for the disastrous 21-month war against breakaway Chechnya - is seen as having the most chance of garnering the 300 votes needed to take the impeachment process further.
The vote on Mr Yeltsin's impeachment - the first in Russian history - will most likely take place on the third and final day of hearings today, said Mr Oleg Morozov of the Russian Regions group. Should deputies impeach the President on any one of the counts by collecting a two-thirds majority the procedure would move on to Russia's Supreme Court.
The usually pro-Yeltsin Constitutional Court would also have to confirm that the impeachment procedure had complied with the basic law. After clearing those legal hurdles, the Federation Council, the upper chamber led by regional governors, would then need to muster a two-thirds majority to throw Mr Yeltsin out of office.
Mr Yeltsin can muddy the waters, however, if he chooses to retaliate by moving to dissolve parliament.
The strong anti-Yeltsin sentiments in parliament are likely to complicate the confirmation of the premier-designate, Mr Sergei Stepashin, which is set for a vote on Wednesday. The Communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, yesterday refused to commit his party to supporting the Kremlin's candidate for premier, saying his allies would make the final decision on the eve of the vote.