Yeltsin fires Russian officials

MOSCOW - President Boris Yeltsin abruptly fired Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and his entire cabinet yesterday. Compounding the surprise, Yeltsin chose a 35-year-old minister who has been serving in Moscow only five months to be acting prime minister.

In a taped speech broadcast on Russian television yesterday morning, a stiff-looking Yeltsin dismissed Chernomyrdin, First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais and Internal Affairs Minister Anatoly Kulikov by name, then added that he had fired the rest of the cabinet because it was "lacking in dynamism and initiative, fresh approaches and ideas."

Yeltsin designated himself acting prime minister, but then passed the office later in the day to his youthful energy minister, Sergei Kiriyenko. "The offer came as a complete surprise," Kiriyenko said. "I learned about it this morning."

The day's events were full of twists and contradictions. Even as Yeltsin fired Chernomyrdin, he appealed to him to concentrate on preparing for the presidential election scheduled for 2000. But some Russians interpreted the firing as an attempt to undermine Chernomyrdin's possible candidacy.

The removal of Chubais, the chief of the government's economic reform program, came at a moment when Russia's economy is being hit by investor nervousness and falling prices for oil - one of Russia's chief exports - but Yeltsin said economic policy would not change with Chubais's departure.

Government ministers other than Chernomyrdin, Chubais and Kulikov will stay on the job until Yeltsin nominates replacements. By law, Yeltsin must present a permanent prime minister to the legislature for approval within two weeks.

"The resignation of the government does not mean any change of our policy course. It means our desire to impart more energy and efficiency to economic reform," Yeltsin said. "The country needs a new team that would be capable of achieving real and tangible results."

The dismissals came at a delicate moment for Russia. The economy has only barely begun to recover; tax collection is inefficient, corruption is rampant, state wages are rarely paid on time. Yeltsin promised economic growth for this year, but fallout from the Asian financial crisis and oil woes are dimming such prospects. And the 67-year-old president, who has been sidelined by illnesses for long stretches of time in recent months, has been unable to resolve conflicts between some of the business tycoons who back him and top advisers, particularly Chubais.

The only thing that seemed certain yesterday is that Yeltsin, who has aged markedly since undergoing quintuple coronary bypass surgery in 1996, rebelled against suggestions he was becoming irrelevant. "We have a story about a bear who was bothered by ducks quacking around his cave," said political analyst Sergei Markov. "One day, the bear decides to slaughter some of the ducks, just to show that they are only ducks and he is a bear."

The suddenness of the dismissals was typical of Yeltsin, who seems to go out of his way to spring surprises. Even Russians used to his style were taken aback. After reading the list of dismissals this morning, a radio newscaster paused and then told listeners.

03-24-98