The Hindu : Putin makes major changes in Cabinet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 10, 2004

International

International

Putin makes major changes in Cabinet

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, MARCH 9. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has appointed the U.N. envoy, Sergei Lavrov, as Russia's Foreign Minister in a drastic overhaul of his Cabinet today.

Mr. Lavrov's predecessor, Igor Ivanov, was named Secretary of the Security Council. Mr. Ivanov had been Foreign Minister since 1998 when he succeeded Yevgeny Primakov, who became Prime Minister.

The new Government will have 15 Ministries instead of 24 in the previous administration and only one Deputy Prime Minister (Alexander Zhukov) instead of five.

Only 9 members of the outgoing Cabinet have retained their jobs, including the Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, the Finance Minister, Alexei Kudrin, and the Economics and Trade Minister, German Gref.

The former Deputy Prime Minister, Boris Alyoshin, who was appointed Co-Chairman of the Indo-Russian Intergovernmental Commission barely two months ago, appears to have been shut out of the new Cabinet.

The Atomic Energy Ministry has been demoted to the status of agency subordinated to the new Industry and Energy Ministry headed by the former Deputy Prime Minister, Viktor Khristenko.

The appointments came four days before presidential elections in Russia, which Mr. Putin is tipped to win, and two weeks after he sacked the old Cabinet and named Russia's envoy to the European Union, Mr. Mikhail Fradkov, as Prime Minister.

This is the first major government reshuffle Mr. Putin has made since becoming President four years ago, and it signalled his final break with the former President, Boris Yeltsin.

The last remaining appointees of the Yeltsin era have lost their posts, including the Information Minister, Mikhail Lesin, the Natural Resources Minister, Artyukhov, and the Security Council Secretary, Vladimir Rushailo.

Unveiling the new Cabinet lineup Mr. Putin said it was the product of an administrative reform that had been in the works for the past two years.

The Cabinet will be much slimmer, with bigger and more powerful Ministries and fewer decision-making levels.

He said there would be no further changes in the government should he win re-election on Sunday.

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