Boris Fyodorov, the strongly reformist finance minister of the giant Russian Federation and a key figure in the struggle for a radical reshape of the Soviet economy, has resigned, Moscow Radio said Thursday.
The radio said 33-year-old Fyodorov, a member of the young ministerial team around Russian President Boris Yeltsin, stepped down, arguing that no progress was being made toward creation of a market system.The radio quoted Fyodorov, who is an active proponent of quick moves toward a market economy, as telling the newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta that the federation government was sliding into old-style command methods of economic control.
In the interview, according to the radio, Fyodorov said he did not want to bolster illusions that the Russian government of Prime Minister Ivan Silayev was progressing toward a market system. "Unfortunately, there is no such movement," he added, according to the radio report.
Fyodorov, an economist, entered Silayev's cabinet in the summer after Yeltsin had won the presidency of the federation's parliament.
Yeltsin and Silayev both say they back fast-track methods to install a market economy throughout the Soviet Union, but a "500-day" plan they championed was turned down by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov.