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To: Rick C. who wrote (53923)	9/26/1998 2:17:00 PM
From: ViperChick Secret Agent 006.9	Respond to of 58727

Rick...you always come out of the woodwork with such weird stuff ;-)))) hmmm anyone know when this hit the wires??? friday September 25 4:19 PM EDT Russian Government In Turmoil As Deputy PM Resigns By Alastair Macdonald MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's fledgling government was thrown into turmoil late Friday when centrist Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Shokhin stormed out of the cabinet nine days after he was appointed. Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who had at last seemed close to completing his cabinet two weeks after being endorsed by parliament, attacked Shokhin's decision as ''irresponsible'' and ''capricious'' at a time of economic crisis. Primakov and President Boris Yeltsin appointed 10 more ministers Friday. Among them was liberal Mikhail Zadornov who, after much hesitation on Primakov's part, retained the finance portfolio. That enraged Shokhin, who was in charge of relations with Russia's major international creditors. He described the reappointment as a ''political mistake'' and said he held Zadornov responsible for Russia's debt freeze and currency collapse. ''The reappointment means that the government is ready to become the heir to the decisions made by the previous cabinet and the central bank,'' Shokhin told NTV television. Primakov's statement, read to Reuters by a government spokesman, left no doubt the new premier was enraged. ''I think this is irresponsible, especially at such a difficult time, with regard to the country, to the government and to the president who had done Shokhin a great favor by appointing him to such an important post,'' it said. But Primakov's statement said the government was calm and ''not weakened'' by Shokhin's ''capricious demarche.'' Shokhin has quit before, and on similar grounds. In 1994, he stormed out of Viktor Chernomyrdin's cabinet, unhappy about the appointment of Vladimir Panskov as finance minister. Later Friday Russian news agencies reported that the head of Russia's securities watchdog, reform-minded Dmitry Vasilyev, had also quit over Zadornov's appointment. Vasilyev, whose Federal Securities Commission is seen as largely ineffective and who has little political clout, is an ally of Zadornov's mentor, reform guru Anatoly Chubais. He was not known to have had problems with Zadornov in the past. Shokhin had been conducting negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank since taking office last week -- a role he previously filled in 1994. ''I did not want to be a fig leaf talking to the West without being sure that the ministries I was overseeing would be guiding the policies I could be responsible for,'' he said. With Russia fighting to avert a default on its foreign debts following a debt freeze and the collapse of the rouble on August 17, his departure and the disarray it confirmed at the heart of the government could be a major setback in attempts to win back the confidence of investors and domestic savers. Zadornov's appointment after days of speculation over who would get the post was, however, welcomed by some Western analysts. ''At least he is a known quantity,'' said Stephen O'Sullivan of finance house United Financial Group. But the increasingly powerful Communists -- who forced Yeltsin to renounce his previous nominee for premier Viktor Chernomyrdin and instead appoint the more conservative Primakov -- were unlikely to be pleased with Zadornov. While Shokhin sees Zadornov as an unsuccessful reformer, the Communists see him as embodying much of what they despise in post-Soviet Russia. And the military, who see him as the man who has held up wages, may also be upset. Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov was guarded even before the news about Zadornov and Shokhin. ''We declared that we will carry out a policy of electoral support for the government if it is capable of carrying out a qualitatively different course,'' he told reporters. Otherwise, he said the party would back a countrywide labor protest on October 7, a date assuming growing significance in the political calendar. Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin met union leaders Friday to discuss their plans. Primakov has vowed to put together a consensus cabinet to reflect the disparate strands of opinion on how to tackle Russia's economic crisis. He has promised not to ditch reforms but to ease the burden on Russia's long-suffering people.