Yeltsin Accepts Resignation of Economic Reform Czar : Russia: Analysts predict new Cabinet will be more socialist-oriented. Shift would be setback for Clinton.

President Boris N. Yeltsin on Monday accepted the resignation of Yegor T. Gaidar, the architect of Russia’s Western-financed market reforms, and the government’s other top reformer said he was being demoted and may also quit.

The eclipse of Gaidar and Boris G. Fyodorov, leading advocates of a radical shakeout of Russia’s heavily subsidized industry and collective farms, foreshadowed a Cabinet reshuffle that could be announced as early as today.

Russian commentators predicted that the new Cabinet, to be appointed by Yeltsin and Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, will be more socialist-oriented, easing the fight against inflation and restoring some subsidies to keep unprofitable enterprises afloat.

If so, it would be a setback for President Clinton, who said here Friday that Yeltsin’s “strong assurances of his intention to continue the reform process” were a major achievement of their two-day summit last week.

Uncertainty over future policy sent the value of the ruble plunging. The Russian currency had been relatively steady since last summer, but it went to 1,402 to the dollar, from 1,354 Friday. Economists said its continued slide could trigger higher inflation.

The coming Cabinet realignment is a fallout of Russia’s Dec. 12 elections, in which ultranationalists, Communists and other critics of the 2-year-old reform effort won a majority in the new Parliament over Gaidar’s Russia’s Choice, which got just 15% of the vote, and other pro-reform parties.

The lower house of Parliament, the Duma, ended its first week of work Friday by electing a Communist Speaker. Two Communists, an ultranationalist and one reformer won deputy Speaker posts Monday. Of 23 committee leaders elected, just six are reformers.

Yeltsin’s foes suffered a defeat, however, when the Duma refused to even consider an amnesty for the hard-liners who tried to overthrow Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in 1991 and Yeltsin last October.

Gaidar offered his resignation as first deputy prime minister and economics minister Sunday, saying he did not have enough political support to keep his reforms on track.

Yeltsin spokesman Vyacheslav V. Kostikov first responded that the resignation would “seriously expose the Russian president’s reformist flank” and expressed hope that Yeltsin would reject it. Hours later, Kostikov read out the president’s statement letting Gaidar go.

U.S. officials tried to play down the significance of Gaidar’s departure, saying it might be a symbolic response to the election defeat rather than a signal of future policy.

“I’m disappointed,” said Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, who was in Moscow for the summit and was visiting Indonesia on Monday. “But we’re not backing a person, we’re backing an economic point of view for a country.”

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this report from Jakarta, Indonesia.