Boris’ Shell Game

NINE DAYS OF SUSPENSE OVER THE MAKEUP OF RUSsia’s new government finally broke: President Boris Yeltsin’s key reformist ministers will keep their jobs after all. Yeltsin’s abrupt abandonment of his acting Prime Minister, free- market maven Yegor Gaidar, made the announcement a relief for those who feared that the Russian President was forsaking the country’s radical reform path altogether. Among the key players from the Gaidar team retaining their posts are Deputy Prime Ministers Alexander Shokhin and Anatoli Chubais. Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev was also kept on. No changes were announced in the key Interior, Defense and Security ministries.

With so little changed in the lineup, Yeltsin is bound to face more battles , with the conservative parliament, which marked its petulance by passing a law last week on government structure, rejecting the President’s request for ultimate executive authority. Under the circumstances, such legislation appeared little more than a reflection of reality.