President Boris Yeltsin, stamping his authority on Russia after months of illness, ordered a complete Cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday after bringing reformist Anatoly Chubais back into the government.
A presidential decree published by Yeltsin's press service effectively gave Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and his new first deputy Chubais a week to form a new Cabinet.It followed a state-of-the-nation speech last week in which Yeltsin, accused of letting Russia drift while he recovered from heart problems, pledged to restore order, fight corruption and turn around the economy.
The decree involves a radical reorganization of the Cabinet, which currently has more than 30 ministers and numerous agen-
cies and departments in a hangover from the bureaucratic Soviet era.
It also appears to give Chubais, brought back into the government after more than a year's absence due to his poor public image, an opportunity to shift policy back toward radical market reform.
The decree does not involve the formal resignation of the government, although it made clear that all jobs apart from Chernomyrdin's and, by implication, Chubais' would potentially be up for grabs.
"I don't know what the president will decide but I hope to see you next time," Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov told reporters after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Yeltsin shifted Chubais, a loyal ally, from his own Kremlin administration to the post of first deputy prime minister on Friday, at the start of a three-day holiday.
Kremlin sources said that the reshuffle would be "serious" and was taking so long because many people would have to be axed, moved or otherwise accommodated.
"The presidential decree has come on top of an economic crisis deepening since last fall," said lawmaker Grigory Yavlinsky. "The president wants to take some steps following his recuperation that show him on top of things."
But Yavlinsky said "a personnel reshuffle alone will solve neither economic issues, nor internal policy problems."
Newspapers had few clues as to whom it would involve although they agreed changes were likely to focus on the economy.
The decree said the government would now have only one first deputy prime minister instead of four and the number of deputy prime ministers would be cut from the current figure of nine. The number of ministries - and of ministers - would also be cut and some of the ministries reorganized.
It mentioned no names but gave Chernomyrdin a week to present a list of personnel changes.
Later Tuesday Yeltsin named Valentin Yumashev, an aide who also helped him write his memoirs, to fill Chubais' old job as head of Kremlin administration, the presidential press office said.
Yumashev, a career journalist, was appointed Yeltsin's aide in July 1996.
The opposition communists, who have condemned Chubais' appointment, saying he destroyed Russia when he was last in government from 1991 to 1996, reacted cautiously to word of the reshuffle.
Gennady Seleznyov, speaker of the communist-dominated lower house of parliament, said that it was designed to pre-empt a demand from the chamber for the government's dismissal and that parliament should be consulted over the new positions.