New Premier Is Appointed in Ukraine
President Leonid Kravchuk on Wednesday named an opponent of rapid economic reform as acting prime minister.
Yefim Zviagilsky, a conservative from Ukraine’s industrial heartland, was appointed a day after Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma stepped down, and lawmakers called on Kravchuk to form a new government.
Kuchma said he quit because he was not given enough power over economic policy. Ukraine’s economy has stagnated since the country broke from the Soviet Union two years ago. A power struggle between Kravchuk and Kuchma stymied most reform.
Zviagilsky, who still needs to be approved by the legislature, is considered a member of the “red directorate,” a coalition of ex-Communist lawmakers who advocate slower reforms.
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