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To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (18805)	9/14/1998 6:01:00 AM
From: Alex	Respond to of 116893

New command heads back to the future By Andrew McCathie, Moscow Russia has swerved away from the drive to radical market-based reforms as the country's new Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeni Primakov, immediately turns to both Soviet-era policies and political figures to shape his new government. Mr Primakov has answered questions about how he would deal with the economic crisis by calling for greater State intervention and appointing two former Soviet officials to key economic posts. Although Mr Primakov said there would be no return to a command economy, the outline of a more industrial-based economic policy has already begun to emerge. He named Mr Yuri Maslyukov, the former head of Soviet central planning, as Deputy Prime Minister in charge of economic affairs. Mr Primakov has also reappointed Mr Viktor Gerashchenko to his old job as chief of Russia's central bank. He was once dubbed "the world's worst central banker". During his tenure at the central bank in the early 1990, Mr Gerashchenko presided over an outbreak of hyperinflation as Russia's monetary authorities reverted to the printing press to shore up industry. The rouble took heart from the fact that Russia's political stalemate had been broken, rising in value last week. The increase in the currency was also helped along by the number of people going back into roubles from US dollars in order to buy goods before the expected steep price increases. The new Primakov team faces an economy dominated by a big budget deficit, large wage and pension arrears, a crippled currency and a shaky banking and financial sector that has been badly hit by the weeks of turmoil. An emergency session of finance and foreign ministers of the world's seven leading industrial nations, which opens in London today, is expected to conclude that it is too early to render additional financial assistance to Russia. Mr Primakov, along with Mr Gerashchenko and Mr Maslyukov, has never liked the tight monetary policies imposed on Russia by the International Monetary Fund. Mr Gerashchenko moved swiftly to reassert his authority at the central bank by removing key officials. President Boris Yeltsin fought hard to have Mr Gerashchenko removed from the central bank in 1994 and his re-emergence in charge of Russia's money supply is further evidence of how the economic and political crisis of recent weeks has left Mr Yeltsin a greatly diminished figure. Several heart attacks, a penchant for heavy drinking and an economic upheaval that has sapped his public support appear to have taken their toll on Mr Yeltsin, 67, forcing him to back off his original choice of prime minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, in the face of stiff opposition in the Duma. Having survived the Soviet era, the Gorbachev era and now the Yeltsin era, Mr Primakov is clearly a very pragmatic political operator. However, at 68 and with no apparent presidential ambitions, he appears to be an interim leader leaving the field wide open for a range of candidates. afr.com.au