RUSSIAN reaction to the death of Deng Xiaoping, while containing the usual diplomatic statements reserved for such occasions, has also engendered a heated political debate.
Democratic politicians and supporters of President Yeltsin have warned of difficulties in China in the future, while the communist-nationalist opposition has been quick to compare the economic success of China under Deng and his Communist Party to the near anarchy which exists in the Russian Federation.
The announcement of the death of the paramount Chinese leader came too late, because of time difference, for yesterday's editions of the main Russian newspapers but the news made a big impact on national television. The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, stood for a minute's silence in his honour.
Perhaps the most interesting result of the TV coverage of the Chinese leader's death was its showing of clips of prosperous conditions in the main cities of China. In its announcement of his death, the independent NTV channel said that despite the west's prognosis of catastrophe, China, due to Deng, was entering the third millennium as the "superpower of the east".
Up to now, Russian viewers have had little chance to make any comparison of the results of economic reforms in the two countries.
It was these differences on to which the Russian communists immediately latched yesterday. One of the party's most influential spokesmen, Mr Valentin Kuptsov, pointed to Deng's policy as the one which Russia should have taken.
The speaker of the State Duma, Mr Gennady Seleznyov, also a communist but with links to Mr Yeltsin's administration, used the occasion to attack the market-liberalism of Russia's early years of reform, but omitted to attack current policy which has become much less pro-western and pro-market.
On the official level, Mr Yeltsin, in a letter of condolence to President Jiang Zemin of China, said he had learned of the death of "China's outstanding statesman and political figure, Deng Xiaoping, the forerunner and architect of reforms which led to historic changes in the image of that great and ancient state.
"The Russian people link the name of Deng Xiaoping with the removal of the vestiges of the past from bilateral relations [between China and Russia] and with the evolution of these relations from complete normalisation to equitable and trustful partnership aimed at strategic, co-operation in the 21st century."
Russia's relations with China would develop on the foundations laid by Deng and reflecting the "will of two great peoples".
The former Soviet president, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, said the question of democracy would become increasingly important following the death of Deng. "China will not manage to avoid [democratic] reforms," he said adding that it was now up the Chinese authorities who would succeed Deng to ensure stability.
