Washington Post - 02.24.2004

Washington Post

Putin Fires Russian Prime Minister

By JIM HEINTZ
The Associated Press

MOSCOW - In a bold step that removed a last major holdover from the days of Boris Yeltsin, President Vladimir Putin dismissed his prime minister and all other Cabinet ministers Tuesday, saying he reshuffled the government in preparation for next month's presidential vote.

With virtually no political opposition before the March 14 balloting, Putin was widely expected win a second term, and his comments Tuesday showed his confidence.

"This decision bears no relation to any assessment of the performance of the former composition of the government," Putin said. "It was dictated by my desire to once again delineate my position on the issue of what development course the country will take after March 14, 2004."

The prime minister in Russia is largely responsible for the day-to-day running of the economy, and has little political power.

Speculation had percolated that Kasyanov was on the way out since late last year, when he criticized a government probe into the Yukos oil giant, including the jailing of its head Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Kasyanov had said the investigation, believed to have been spearheaded by the Kremlin, set a bad precedent for the country's economy.

Kasyanov had been prime minister since Putin was elected in 2000 and was the last major government holdover from Boris Yeltsin's years as president.

The dismissal of the prime minister also means the dismissal of the rest of the government ministers, though any of them potentially could be reappointed.

Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko was named acting prime minister.

The announcement sent shares tumbling on the Russian stock market, with dips of 3 to 5 percent within minutes of Putin's statement, the Interfax news agency reported.

Kasyanov served in the Soviet-era state planning agency Gosplan during the 1980s and rose steadily through economic and financial posts after the Soviet collapse in 1991.

As deputy finance minister in 1996, he worked out a deal for repaying debts that Russia inherited from the Soviet Union. Two years later, he was a key architect of Russia's efforts to regain its credibility after defaulting on foreign debt payments and the ruble's value plunged.

He became finance minister under Yeltsin in 1999. One of his main achievements in that post was persuading the Paris Club of creditors to reschedule some $8 billion in Soviet-era loans.