President Boris Yeltsin made light of Russia's financial woes yesterday but the stakes are growing for him and his embattled young prime minister.
Political and economic analysts say the longer the turmoil continues on financial markets, the greater the chance that Russia will default on debt payments or devalue the rouble - moves which the government has ruled out and would have serious political repercussions.
Mr Yeltsin does not seem in any immediate political danger, but his Prime Minister, Mr Sergei Kiriyenko, is more vulnerable. Analysts say each day the crisis continues makes the noose a little tighter.
The president responded to growing criticism of Mr Kiriyenko by giving the 36-year-old former banker a vote of confidence yesterday, but raised the prospect of a minor reshuffle. "Yes, I will keep him on," Mr Yeltsin said in reply to a reporter's question about Mr Kiriyenko's fate during a visit to the provincial city of Novgorod.
The president said he saw no need to end his holiday early and return to Moscow to deal with the crisis. But he said one of his main tasks when he returns from holiday will be "certain financial and personnel issues" and singled out the Economy Minister, Mr Yakov Urinson, for criticism.
"Urinson spent all his life sitting in a laboratory and then he was made a minister. He knows science but knows nothing about things in practice," he said.
Mr Yeltsin's comments were deliberately vague and tantalising, but are sure to intensify speculation that he wants to tamper with a government which took office less than five months ago.
Critics say the remarks may stop talk of Mr Kiriyenko's immediate dismissal, but could amount to nothing more than a temporary stay of execution.
A multi-billion dollar international bail-out, the first tranche of which was delivered last month, was intended to give Mr Kiriyenko a breathing space to carry out reforms but failed to lift confidence for long.
The knives are out for the former banker and he did his cause little good on Thursday by saying Russia's problem was a lack of investor confidence which lay in the "realm of psychology".
"It is as clear as day that Kiriyenko's government cannot handle the crisis and even cannot adequately understand what is happening on the markets," railed the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, a fierce critic of the inexperienced Prime Minister.
The United States, and Mr Yeltsin himself, gave Mr Kiriyenko a nudge on Thursday by saying the government must steadfastly carry out its plan of action to tackle the crisis.
Mr Kiriyenko's crisis plan has been stalled by the opposition-dominated state Duma, the lower house of parliament, which has approved some of his measures but has balked at others including what he says are important tax proposals.
Mr Kiriyenko saw a glimmer of hope yesterday when a nationalist bloc dominated by the Communist Party, the biggest single group in the Duma, agreed that a crisis session should be held. That could be a lifeline for the prime minister, although the opposition may seek political concessions from Mr Yeltsin and the government as the price for accepting the anti-crisis plan.
Mr Kiriyenko has no power base outside his government and his fate is entirely dependent on the whims of a president whose moods are notoriously unpredictable.
"Yeltsin is not in any immediate danger himself, although he could be threatened if this goes on," a political analyst, Mr Andrei Kortunov, said.
Mr Yeltsin has often responded to problems in the past by reshuffling his government or his Kremlin administration, making personnel changes rather than fundamental policy changes.
To do so would put at risk the main economic achievements of Mr Yeltsin's presidency - reduced inflation and rouble stability - and increase the risk of serious social unrest among workers who in some cases have not been paid for months.