President Yeltsin has cancelled a proposed visit to Kazakhstan in order to deal with the current politico-economic crisis in Moscow. Yesterday's rejection by the Duma of Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin's candidature for the prime ministership puts the ball firmly back into Mr Yeltsin's court.
With a third and final vote likely to take place next Monday, Russia's President has now to decide whether or not to stand by Mr Chernomyrdin's candidature or to put forward another candidate.
While Mr Chernomyrdin's total rose from the 94 he received in the first vote a week ago to 138 yesterday, the growth in support for Mr Yeltsin's nominee was extremely disappointing. Both the communists and the democratic opponents of Mr Yeltsin were adamant that they are prepared to face dissolution of the Duma by voting against Mr Chernomyrdin should his nomination be put forward a third time.
Some members of the Communist Party have been making proChernomyrdin noises in the past few days and should the third vote be taken by secret ballot there could be major defections to the Chernomyrdin camp. Two communist members actually voted for Mr Yeltsin's nominee in last evening's vote.
Members of the Yabloko party led by the economic reformer, Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, are, however, opposed in principle to Mr Chernomyrdin and under no circumstances are likely to do a deal which would lead to his election.
But Mr Yavlinsky, described by the right-wing demagogue, Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as a "lackey of the American imperialists", did throw out a possible lifeline to President Yeltsin in the course of his speech to the Duma.
"We need a person who won't be dismissed in three months time and that person should answer the following requirements," Mr Yavlinsky said. "He should not belong to any political party. He should enjoy complete authority so that the power ministers would listen to him. He should be very well known and he should have no ambitions to become president. Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov is such a person."
By putting forward the candidature of Russia's Foreign Minister Mr Yavlinsky nominated a candidate who was acceptable to himself as a liberal-democrat and also to the communists. Should Mr Yeltsin swallow his pride and nominate Mr Primakov, Russia could have a government very quickly.
That, of course, would not obliterate the economic crisis which has been raging for the past three weeks, but it would at least put a team in place which could attempt to deal with it.
Mr Yavlinsky even offered a sop to Mr Chernomyrdin, saying if the acting premier thought he had the answers to Russia's problems, he could become first deputy premier in a Primakov government.
The Communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, restricted his comments to saying that his party would vote against Mr Chernomyrdin once more if he is renominated and the independent news agency Interfax reported that Mr Yeltsin would indeed put Mr Chernomyrdin's name forward for a third time.