Russia's acting prime minister has vowed to propose an acting cabinet to President Boris Yeltsin, despite his overwhelming rejection yesterday by the Duma.
"As the situation is extremely grave across all of industry . . . in my acting capacity I am now obliged, in a day or two, depending on what the president does, to put forward proposals for forming a government," Mr Victor Chernomyrdin told the lower house of the Duma, the Russian parliament.
A Kremlin aide said before the vote that Mr Yeltsin would keep Mr Chernomyrdin on as acting prime minister, giving him another chance next week to win the approval of the Communist-led parliament.
In Washington, the White House said the Duma's decision would have little effect on President Clinton's trip.
"Given the rejection of the compromise over the weekend, you could expect to see that from the Duma," said a spokesman. "It is an internal Russian matter and shouldn't have a significant impact on the summit."
Mr Chernomyrdin told the Duma that the country could go without a government. But deputies were in no mood to support him.
He needs the deputies' approval to form a fully-fledged government but yesterday suffered a stunning rejection by the parliament, receiving the lowest level of support in the short post-Soviet history of Russia.
Mr Chernomyrdin, who was prime minister from 1992 to March 1998, won the backing of 94 deputies with 253 against. By contrast Mr Sergei Kiriyenko, whom President Boris Yeltsin picked from obscurity to replace Mr Chernomyrdin as prime minister in March, got more votes in each of his three attempts, the last of which proved successful.
Under the 1993 Russian constitution, the prime minister must win 226 votes in one of as many as three votes, or the president must dissolve the Duma and call an early parliamentary election.
The first time in April this year Mr Kiriyenko received 143 votes for and 186 against. On the second vote, 115 deputies voted for and 271 against him.
Faced with possible dissolution at the third vote, the Duma gave in on April 24th and 251 of the 276 deputies voted in favour of Mr Kiriyenko.
Mr Yeltsin abruptly sacked Mr Kiriyenko eight days ago and brought back Mr Chernomyrdin, whom he had criticised before for not moving forward quickly enough on economic reforms.
Mr Chernomyrdin first came to power under the Soviet-era constitution in December 1992. He had come second in what was essentially a popularity contest in the Congress of People's Deputies.
But Mr Yeltsin was able to name Mr Chernomyrdin without submitting him to a specific approval vote.
Russia's first post-Soviet acting prime minister, the radical market reformer Mr Yegor Gaidar, was deeply unpopular with the Soviet legislature, prompting Mr Yeltsin to approve Mr Chernomyrdin as a compromise choice.
Until a new prime minister is appointed, ministries are still headed by those who served under Mr Kiriyenko.
At the weekend, Mr Chernomyrdin said he was setting up a working group to deal with Russia's severe financial crisis. It included acting finance minister Mr Mikhail Zadornov and central bank chief Mr Sergei Dubinin.
Both of them sat with Mr Chernomyrdin throughout the debate on his confirmation yesterday.