The all-union strike will demand removal of President Boris Yeltsin and restoration of the social security system that prevailed in the erstwhile Soviet Union, according to the national dailies Izvestia

and Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

The strike call assumes significance in view of the vulnerability of the newly-appointed Primakov government faced with a crippling economic crisis and desertions by previously enthusiastic supporters.

The cabinet suffered a major setback when the Yabloko Party, the third largest in the Duma, the lower house of parliament, refused to join hands with the new premier, in spite of party leader Yegor Yavlinsky having vigorously championed Primakov's candidature.

What has surprisedpolitical pundits here is that the Communists, whose majority in the Duma helped Primakov assume his new post, are trying to distance themselves from the new government. Media reports have speculated about the impending departure of Communist leader and first deputy speaker Yuri Maslyukov from the cabinet to join his party colleagues in organising the action day.

However, Voice of Russia reports said the Primakov government had already taken steps to check the economic crisis and decided to print more paper currency even at the cost of hyper inflation to begin payment of salaries from October.

Other steps include defreezing of hard currency accounts, keeping the dollar-rouble ratio within the pre-determined corridor, pumping life into the country's banking system and coming down heavily on the mafiosi and scamsters.

The government also restored state monopoly on the production and distribution of vodka, a move interpreted by many experts as a step to directly raise money from the homemarket.

Meanwhile, interior minister Sergei Stepashin told mediapersons that on the all-union action day, the government would not stop demonstrations and rallies but would deal severely with any breach of law and order, with the help of special police squads patrolling the streets.