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MONDAY AUGUST 24 1998ÿÿEuropeÿ
Yeltsin fires government and recalls previous PM
By John Thornhill in Moscow
President Boris Yeltsin plunged Russia into a fresh round of political turmoil last night when he sacked his entire government and re-appointed Victor Chernomyrdin as acting prime minister.
The latest twist in Russia's political drama came in the midst of an ever deepening financial crisis and on the eve of an important meeting between local banks and their foreign creditors to renegotiate the country's foreign commercial debts.
In a terse presidential decree released by the Kremlin last night, Mr Yeltsin gave no reason for his decision to fire Sergei Kiriyenko as prime minister just five months after his appointment.
Last week, Mr Yeltsin was rumoured to have rejected Mr Kiriyenko's offer to resign after the government was forced in effect to devalue the rouble and to default on its domestic debt.
Mr Chernomyrdin, who was abruptly dismissed as prime minister in March after five years in office, immediately opened talks to form a new government.
The stolid 60-year-old former gas industry boss, recently lambasted the government's policies and said Russia needed a new cabinet which could command parliamentary support.
However, some opposition leaders criticised Mr Chernomyrdin's reappointment and suggested that approval of his candidacy by the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, might not happen quickly.
Vladimir Lukin, the deputy leader of the liberal Yabloko party, said that Mr Chernomyrdin's appointment reflected "a profound loss of confidence by those at the centre of executive power" and represented a return to the failed policies of the past.
Nikolai Ryzhkov, the influential chairman of the left-wing People's Power faction, said that Mr Yeltsin's decision lacked any logic.
Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party, the biggest parliamentary faction, criticised Mr Yeltsin's impulsive decision and said that he should have first consulted parliamentary leaders about the current direction of Russian economic policy.
However, Alexander Shokhin, the parliamentary leader of the moderate Our Home is Russia movement, which is headed by Mr Chernomyrdin, welcomed the removal of the previous government, which he claimed had deceived the president about the true state of affairs in the country.
"Chernomyrdin will not be just a technocratic premier and will probably be able to form a government which can command the support of the majority of the state Duma, the Federation Council [the upper house], and the regions," he said.
Last week, Mr Chernomyrdin held a series of meetings with leading parliamentary and regional leaders to bolster his political standing. Mr Chernomyrdin has openly declared his ambitions to succeed Mr Yeltsin in the next presidential elections, which are to be held in 2000.
Mr Chernomyrdin has the reputation of a proponent of moderate change who distrusted the more radical market-based reforms that were championed by Russia's younger generation of politicians.
Mr Chernomyrdin appears to have been backed by a powerful coalition of industrial leaders and bankers, who view him as the best "stability candidate" during Russia's latest financial crisis.>>>> |
