POLITICS-RUSSIA: Primakov Gets The Nod From Almost Everyone

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW, Sep 10 1998 (IPS) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin extricated himself from his political quagmire, bowed to his parliament and nominated a prime minister whose main qualification is his lack of presidential ambition and party affiliation.

Yevgeny Primakov, 68, has other qualities, but on Thursday his decent record as foreign minister and expert orientalist came strictly secondary to his political inoffensiveness in the eyes of the fractured, factional lower house of parliaments (the Duma).

His nomination Thursday broke the stalemate in the Duma over Yeltsin’s first choice, recalled former premier Viktor Chernomyrdin.

Backed by almost all, Primakov’s approval as premier is expected to be a formality. Once his name was approved by the Communists, his candidacy was quickly endorsed by both the nationalists and liberals before getting the Kremlin stamp of approval.

“We must confirm a prime minister who would not have to be sacked in three months. He should not belong to any political party,” prominent liberal Grigory Yavlinsky told the Duma, just before it voted to reject Chernomyrdin for a second time on Monday.

“He should have sufficient political authority, be known in the world and lack any desire to run for president. There is such a person. It is Yevgeny Maximovich Primakov.”

“Russia’s new premier faces a tough job of tackling the crisis,” says Nikita Moiseev, a prominent economist and member of Russia’s Academy of Science. “He’ll have to think fast.”

Primakov, 68, was born in Kiev in Ukraine, but spent his youth in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. He graduated from Russia’s College of Oriental Studies in 1953 and worked as foreign correspondent in the Middle East. In the 1970s he became deputy director of the influential Institute of World Economics and International Relations and later headed the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies.

Primakov is a member of the prestigious Academy of Sciences and has a doctorate in economics. Elected to the Soviet parliament in 1988 he chaired the chamber for roughly a year between 1989 and 1990.

In 1990, he joined Gorbachev’s presidential council, and following the Soviet collapse in 1991 he became director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), one of the successors to the Soviet-era KGB secret police.

In January 1996 Primakov replaced Andrei Kozyrev as foreign minister, a man seen in Russia as a pro-Western figure. Primakov however, has steered his own course, particularly in the Middle East.

His mediation with Iraq on the eve of the 1991 U.S.-led attack on Iraqi forces in Kuwait infuriated Washington, and as foreign minister he has succeeded in ensuring that Russia, though debilitated by the break up of the Soviet Union, continues to make its view heard on the world stage.

“These days Yevgeny Maximovich Primakov is one of Russia’s best qualified statesmen,” Eleonora Merkulova, professor of the elite Diplomatic Academy within Russia’s foreign ministry, told IPS.

The only blot on his record so far dates back to late September, when rumours flew that Primakov had offered to resign over the conduct of his former deputy, Ivan Kuznetsov, accused of loaning two million dollars of state money at below market interest rates to a Russian company operating in New York City, where he was serving as consul general at the time. The money has not been recovered.

Primakov then endorsed Kuznetsov’s bid to become ambassador to Ireland, but it was rejected by the Kremlin, a step seen as a measure of presidential disapproval.

Nevertheless Primakov’s nomination was widely greeted by Russian politicians. “I think his candidacy will get solid support in the State Duma. Good sense has prevailed this time,” Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told reporters.

The Communists cleared the way for Primakov by adding his name to their list of ‘acceptable’ candidates on Monday. Ironically Primakov then tried to refuse the post. “I declare unequivocally,” he said in a statement, “I cannot agree to this.”

But the will of the Duma and the Kremlin was against him. Only the ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky rejected him, dismissing him as ‘pro-American’. Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democrats have about 50 deputies in the 450-seat Duma and will probably alone vote against Primakov.

Primakov may retain the foreign affairs portfolio and is expected to continue Russia’s policy of building stronger relations with Russia’s eastern neighbours, especially China and Japan, as well as other countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Under the terms of the constitution, the coming vote for Primakov will be Yeltsin’s third and last chance to have his choice of premier installed. If his nominee is again rejected, the president must dissolve the Duma, thus deepening the political crisis.

The Communist led Duma had threatened to institute impeachment proceedings if Yeltsin tried to force Chernomyrdin on them a third time. The impeachment bill, already drafted would have prevented Yeltsin from dissolving the Duma until the proceedings had run their course, one way or another, probably until spring next year.

The given grounds for impeachment — Yeltsin’s part in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the shelling of parliament in 1993 and the war in Chechnya — were not thought likely to attract broad based political support in the Duma.

Chernomyrdin said he was standing down as nominee rather than become an obstacle to stability. “If Chernomyrdin today splits society then I give up,” he said.

His political career may now be finished and his own presidential ambitions lie in tatters. Described by Russian media as “the wrong man at the worst possible time,” his political record is likely to be defined by a single celebrated quote: “I wanted things to get better, but they turned out like they always do.”

His long tenure in office, since 1992, was a reflection not of any particular achievement, but rather of his unwavering loyalty to Yeltsin and of his role as a compromise figure between westernising reformers like Anatoly Chubais and the Communist opposition.

“Chernomyrdin’s nomination proved to be Yeltsin’s big mistake,” said Vyacheslav Nikonov, chairman of the Politika Fund, a Moscow- based think-tank. “It was just naive to hope that Chernomyrdin would get any support, and Russia’s financial market gave its own vote of no confidence in Chernomyrdin by simply disappearing.”