Madam, - An article from the UK's Guardian Service ( The Irish Times, April 8th, page 8), while outlining the powers of the Russian parliament, states: "Parliament can also impeach the President." The situation is by no means so simple.
Article 93 of the Russian Constitution outlines an extremely complicated impeachment procedure. Among other things it says: "The President of the Russian Federation may be impeached by the Council of the Federation only on the basis of charges of high treason or another grave crime, advanced by the State Duma and confirmed by a conclusion of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the presence of the elements of crime in the actions of the President of the Russian Federation and by the conclusion of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation confirming that the rules for advancing the charges were observed."
At the time President Yeltsin introduced the constitution in 1993, most experts regarded the procedure to be so involved as to make impeachment of the president almost impossible.
- Yours, etc,
SEAMUS MARTIN, Dublin 8.