New Russian Premier Agrees to Keep Key Reformers : Politics: An alarmed Yeltsin insists on staying the free-market course, and Chernomyrdin goes along.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, forced by conservative backlash to jettison his reformist prime minister, made the new premier agree Sunday to keep the Cabinet’s core of reformers, Yeltsin’s spokesman announced.

After speeding home a day early from a visit to China because of alarming reports reaching him from Moscow, Yeltsin met for several hours with his new prime minister, former Soviet technocrat Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, to insist on staying the course toward a free-market, democratic Russia.

The new premier agreed, Yeltsin’s press secretary said.

“The government’s main structures will be preserved,” Vyacheslav V. Kostikov told Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency after the talks. “As far as the makeup of the Cabinet of Ministers is concerned, the main incumbent personnel will continue to function.”

No names were mentioned, but so there would be no mistaking the import of the closed-door conclave, Kostikov said that despite the recent change at the top, Russia’s government “remains devoted to the idea of transition to a market economy and intends to carry on the policy of reforms.”

For a world worried about potential backtracking in Russia’s agonizingly painful efforts to break up a state-owned economy and switch to capitalism, Yeltsin’s spokesman was giving assurances that even with the departure of Yegor T. Gaidar from the post of acting prime minister, Gaidar’s policies--in the main--will continue.

But others said there will be changes.

“No doubt, corrections in the reform are necessary--this is natural,” Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev, whose reform credentials are considered impeccable, warned a nationwide congress of the Democratic Russia movement in Moscow.

Gaidar’s ruthless actions in selling off state-owned enterprises, abolishing price controls and cutting back on the bailout of government-run factories sent inflation soaring to more than 2,000% a year, slashed output by at least a fifth and brought economic hardship and uncertainty to millions of Russians.

After facing fierce opposition at the Congress of People’s Deputies over his plan to seek legislative confirmation for the embattled Gaidar as the head of government, Yeltsin suddenly dumped his 36-year-old protege last Monday and instead nominated Chernomyrdin, a former Communist Party Central Committee apparatchik and expert in the oil and gas industry.

That move has worried and outraged many of Yeltsin’s traditional political comrades in arms, like the members of Democratic Russia.

“We are automatically in opposition to the new head of government,” said Vladimir O. Boxer of Moscow, one of more than 700 progressives and radical militants from throughout Russia who attended the umbrella group’s weekend congress. “Of course, he may try to pursue a more balanced policy, but he is yesterday’s man, no matter how you look at him.”

At their meeting in the former headquarters of the defunct Comecon Communist trade bloc, Democratic Russia delegates--appalled by what they regarded as the “betrayal” of Gaidar--hotly debated going into formal opposition against Yeltsin and the new government.

They finally decided to take that drastic step only if the government backs away from reform.

In public, Chernomyrdin has generally confined himself to Delphic statements about his intentions. But returning to Moscow on Saturday evening from a first round of talks with Kazakhstan’s leaders, the new prime minister endorsed a broad continuity of both government policies and personnel.

“I would like the core of the Gaidar team to continue to work in the Russian government,” Chernomyrdin told Itar-Tass.

But in a barbed remark, he made clear his basic differences with the young macroeconomist he is replacing at the helm of the government. Dryly, Chernomyrdin noted that he favors only those reforms that produce “specific results.”

Meanwhile, members of Foreign Minister Kozyrev’s entourage highlighted the differences between the two premiers by giving their version of what caused Yeltsin to speed home from Beijing.

On Saturday, these sources said, Yeltsin got wind of Chernomyrdin’s reported plan to meet over the weekend with two potent critics of Gaidar’s reforms, legislative Chairman Ruslan I. Khasbulatov and Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi, apparently to discuss how to divvy up ministerial portfolios.

Yeltsin then rushed home in a preemptive strike.

As president, Yeltsin has the exclusive constitutional right to name the members of Russia’s government. But in a concession this month that he must rue, because it brought him nothing in return, the strapping president gave the Supreme Soviet, the standing legislature dominated by former Communist officials, the right to veto nominations to four key ministries: Foreign Affairs, Defense, Security and Internal Affairs.

Kozyrev is certain to be among the first to feel the wrath of the Supreme Soviet, where he is widely regarded as a lackey of the West, if Yeltsin elects to try for his confirmation.

“In my opinion, there exists a clear danger of revanchism in our foreign policy . . . a return to ‘besieged fortress’ (mentality),” Kozyrev said soberly in his speech to Democratic Russia.

Later, the soft-spoken career diplomat told reporters that if the Supreme Soviet meddles in the workings of his ministry, the country will no longer need a foreign minister and he will not be able to continue in the job.

Mysteriously, Kozyrev sported a bad bruise around his left eye, as though he had been punched or collided with a door, but he left the congress site--now the headquarters of the Moscow mayor’s office--before he could be quizzed about it.

Yeltsin has said he is willing to give up a handful--but no more--of the more than 30 ministers in the outgoing government. The exact extent of turnover should be clear when Chernomyrdin announces his team to the Supreme Soviet, which is expected today or Tuesday.

Paradoxically, Yeltsin himself has lambasted Economics Minister Andrei A. Nechayev and Foreign Trade Minister Pyotr O. Aven in public for their ineffectiveness, but both are considered among key Gaidar allies in the Cabinet.