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By Russell Working and Nonna Chernyakova Vladivostok wasn't the only Far Eastern city to see large-scale protests amid the nation-wide demonstrations Wednesday. Throughout the vast region stretching from Siberia to the Pacific, unpaid workers and others gathered in major cities and tiny villages to protest the government's policies that led to economic crisis. The largest reported protest was in Khabarovsk, where 15,000 students, teachers, doctors and other state workers marched to the central square Wednesday, union representatives said. Protesters, many of whom hadn't been paid for four to six months, demanded the resignation of President Yeltsin, the adoption of economic policies more beneficial to workers, and the passage of laws to protect working people's rights. Salary arrears amount to 1.5 billion rubles, said Olga Ryzhakova, press officer for the region's Federation of Trade Unions. Some speakers complained that Gov. Viktor Ishayev failed to do his best to protect his people. "People say that their patience has been exhausted," Ryzhakova said. State Duma Deputy Valentin Tsoi led the march. Around Primorye, factories and enterprises staged temporary work stoppages through the day. Bolshoi Kamen's ship repair and submarine recycling factory, Zvezda, and Vladivostok's ship repair plant, Dalzavod, shut down for the entire day in a show of solidarity for the protest. In Nakhodka, nearly 3,000 people gathered on the city's main square, Novosti reported, while in Artyom, Arseniev, and Luchegorsk, similiar protests were organized by local labor and political leaders. Here is what happened elsewhere in the Far East: Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Most of the 4,500 Sakhalin miners who struck Wednesday have vowed they will continue their strike when the island-wide action of protest finished, said Sergei Volodarsky, head of miners' trade union. The miners are angry because they say Russia's new cabinet doesn't honor an agreement they reached with the government of Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko to cover their back wages. Miners and the government reached the agreement after striking miners blocked the railroad to the this far eastern island's main power station in July and August, shutting down electricity for up to 20 hours a day in the capital. Demonstrations took place Wednesday in 12 cities around the island. In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, about 4,000 people gathered to listen to the trade union leaders, veterans, local Duma deputies and the mayor. "The meeting was very peaceful, but it supported the general anti-Yeltsins slogans," said Lyudmila Krysina, spokeswoman for the island's Federation of Trade Unions. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Household maintenance and energy complex workers announced Wednesday that they will strike until they get all the debts, the Vladivostok television news program Mestnoye Vremya reported. This means that the peninsula's residents will have no hot water and no heating in the coming winter. According to Nina Leskova, spokeswoman for the oblast's Federation of Trade Unions, there were about 4,000 protesters here and another 2,000 in Yelizovo, in the second largest city in the region. Magadan. About 1,000 people demonstrated downtown Wednesday and hundreds more gathered in villages throughout the region to denounce the government for unpaid wages, said Antonina Lukina, oblast administration press officer. Communists led the action of protest, waving a banner with the slogan "Yeltsin must resign." In this region that straddles the Arctic Circle, the population has plummeted from 560,000 to 260,000 since the early 1990s, and wages are from three to 14 months late. Just days before the protest, top administration officials talked the miners out of a threat to stop delivering coal to the power station. Two out of three mines are closing this year, and the staff demanded new jobs and back payments. The number of protesters was about the same as in actions in the spring and last year, Lukina said. Bolshoi Kamen. Workers at Zvezda, a ship repair yard that is recycling nuclear submarines, massed in front of the factory Wednesday and blocked all the roads to the downtown for three hours Wednesday, a factory spokeswoman said. The plant's 1,500 workers haven't been paid since February 1997, said Ivan Rogovoi, a Bolshoi Kamen regional Duma deputy and foreman at the factory. People are receiving only 150 rubles a month and foodstuffs, which they will have to repay out of back salaries they receive in the future. Still, Nina Kolesnichenko, spokesperson for the factory, said the demonstration was peaceful. "There were no fights," she said. "People are too tired." Mike Eckel contributed to this report.
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