THE Russian government yesterday spent a second day struggling to find a resolution to a national miners' strike amid fears that the dispute has further dented President Yeltsin's flagging chances of re-election, and could spread to other industries where workers have also gone unpaid for months.
The Yeltsin administration is acutely aware that the hundreds of thousands of miners who have downed tools - a protest that seems to have been co-ordinated with a mass walkout by their counterparts in the Ukraine - are in a dilemma shared by millions of other Russians.
Sectors that rely on the government for funds - defence plants, nuclear power stations, the armed forces, teachers, health workers and many more - have recently experienced long delays in receiving pay.
Last night, Russia's air traffic controllers announced plans to resume their national strike next week, which was launched in December but suspended shortly afterwards.
Delays in pay are often simply the result of the ruthless application of economics. Russia's high inflation (currently 4 per cent a month) means the cash-starved government can cut its costs merely by holding back funds for long periods.
But the miners are also the victim of a more basic Russian phenomenon: theft and corruption. There is little doubt that a proportion of the government funds sent out to pay them has disappeared into the pockets of bureaucrats on the way.
For the miners, the knowledge that their wage packets have been stolen is yet another addition to a long list of grievances. Although they earn an average of about £130 a month - well over the national norm - safety, health and general working conditions are dismal.
Yesterday the government was working to solve the strike, which has shut down 80 per cent of Russia's mines. New economics minister, Mr Vladimir Kadannikov, was dispatched for negotiations with union leaders.
The betting in Moscow is that the government will settle its differences with the miners soon, before the mid-winter power cuts that some predict. But the worries of either party will not end there. The miners know that, if it is reelected in June, the Yeltsin government is bent on closing down 140 of Russia's 240 mines, many of which are Stalin-era relics and reflect the utter disregard for profit of a centrally-planned economy.
And the Kremlin knows that if other sections of Russia's restless workforce start clamouring for their money - teachers in 53 regions are already on strike - it may have to cough up. This would risk a return to runaway inflation and could jeopardise a crucial $9 billion loan under negotiation with the International Monetary Fund.