Russian reforms in doubt after Gaidar's departure

Yeltsin accepted the resignation of Economics Minister Yegor Gaidar and

another key government reformer set tough conditions for staying on.

Boris Fyodorov, clearly frustrated with a proposal to stay as finance

minister but not as deputy premier, said he would only stay if Central

Bank Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko and conservative Deputy Prime Minister

Alexander Zaveryukha lost their jobs.

His demands seemed unlikely to be accepted by moderate Prime Minister

Viktor Chernomyrdin, clearly emerging as a strong political figure on

the Russian political landscape.

Yeltsin accepted the resignation of Gaidar, architect of his radical

market reforms, but swore he would not waver in them.

The absence of both Gaidar and Fyodorov would automatically strengthen

the hand of more conservative members in the cabinet.

It would also deal a blow to Western confidence, already shaken by the

success of ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the Communist

Party in parliamentary elections.

The government crisis, which has already sent the rouble nosediving,

started yesterday, one day after US President Bill Clinton left Moscow

with Yeltsin's assurances that there would be no slackening in the pace

of reform.

Gaidar announced yesterday that he had refused a place in a new

Russian government. He said his decisions were being ignored and reforms

endangered with high-spending projects.

According to several government sources, attempts to set conditions

for Gaidar to stay in his post lasted through the night and into this

morning. Yeltsin announced he had accepted the resignation only today.

Yeltsin, struggling with the legacy of communist and nationalist

successes at December parliamentary elections, appeared to be bowing to

strong conservative pressure.

''Accepting this resignation, I would like particularly to stress the

unchangeability of the president's course towards deep and democratic

reform of Russian society, its economy and political institutions,'' he

said in a statement.

''The policy of reforms will be continued,'' his statement, the text

of which was issued by Itar-Tass news agency, said.

It did not seem to quell alarm in the reformist camp.

''I am very much concerned that the president may find himself

isolated from the people who really support change in Russia,'' said

Gennady Burbulis, once a most close Yeltsin aide.

''A natural desire to play the role of a political arbiter might be

premature,'' he told reporters in parliament.

Yeltsin came under fire from inside his own camp when the pro-reform

Russia's Choice parliamentary bloc said the government had wavered since

the elections. Gaidar is head of Russia's Choice.

''The economic and political situation in Russia has considerably

changed,'' said a statement, issued by the bloc at a session of the

lower chamber, or Duma.

''The leadership of the Russian government regularly departs from the

course of stablisation and reform while declaring it is true to it,'' it

added.

Yeltsin needs the support of Russia's Choice in a Duma already

bristling with nationalist and communist opponents. He can ill afford an

all-out clash with the bloc that campaigned in polls as his chief

supporter.

Russia's Choice began the session of the new parliament as the second

biggest single party in the lower house behind Zhirinovsky's Liberal

Democratic Party (LDPR).

But communists, the ultra-nationalists and conservative Agrarians

outweigh Russia's Choice and its pro-reform allies.

Gaidar, 37, said yesterday he did not consider himself in opposition

to Yeltsin, but he made it clear the president could not expect

unconditional support.

Yeltsin dropped Gaidar as acting premier in December, 1992, under

pressure from the conservative Soviet-era parliament, and replaced him

with Chernomyrdin.

His return to government last September followed the apparent victory

of radicals in the presidential administration who were pushing for a

showdown with the parliament.

Within days, Yeltsin abolished the old parliament, using military

might to enforce his decision when nationalists and communist militants

launched an uprising on October 3.

Officially 147 people died in street fighting.--Reuter.