Yeltsin Taps Liberal Aide to Help Speed Reforms

President Boris N. Yeltsin followed up on promises that Russia will speed up its flagging economic reform program by reappointing a liberal ally, Anatoly B. Chubais, as a first deputy prime minister Friday.

The 41-year-old Chubais, who led an ambitious Russian privatization program in the early 1990s, has long drawn the ire of Communist critics of the often harsh post-Soviet economic restructuring.

His appointment signals that Yeltsin, now active again after months of illness, has recovered enough to take on his domestic opponents and force the pace of Russia’s move to the free market.

Yeltsin promised during a tough speech Thursday to shake Russian politicians out of their recent lethargy with a Cabinet reshuffle, new reforms and a crackdown on corruption. Months-long delays in paying state-sector salaries and pensions have taken their toll on Yeltsin’s popularity, as have fears that he was too unfit to rule.

The appointment of Chubais--who until Friday held another high-profile post as Yeltsin’s chief of staff and has already served a stint as first deputy prime minister--was the first of the promised changes to materialize.

“The situation in the economy is extremely complicated,” Chubais said Friday. But “the authorities can overcome negative influences in the economy and impose order, first and foremost in the paying of wages and pensions.”

Exactly what Chubais will do in his new role has yet to be defined. A presidential decree announcing his appointment did not confirm or counter the widespread belief that he will be put in overall charge of reform.

Nor did it make clear what would become of three other first deputy prime ministers now serving in Russia’s top-heavy government--Alexei A. Bolshakov, who oversees industrial production; Vladimir O. Potanin, who raises finance for industry; and Viktor V. Ilyushin, who handles economic and social policy.

Kremlin sources suggest that the three could be demoted or fired, leaving Chubais the only holder of the title.

The West is sure to applaud Chubais’ new role. He is trusted by organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the Group of 7 industrialized nations and can revive confidence in Russian reform.

In Washington, the Clinton administration welcomed the Chubais appointment.

“He’s a very talented, very tough advocate of Russian national interests, and we respect him and look forward to working with him,” State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said.

In his earlier incarnation as first deputy prime minister, Chubais was fired in January 1996 after about one year on the job when Yeltsin made him the scapegoat for Russia’s economic woes.

With presidential elections to fight last summer, the canny president stepped back from unpopular full-scale reform and those most closely associated with it--and clearly felt Chubais would not be an electoral asset.

Although Chubais helped organize Yeltsin’s election campaign, he kept out of the limelight and, during a rare interview last summer, insisted that he wanted to pursue a career in the private sector.

Weeks later, however, he accepted the powerful administrative post of chief of staff.

Since then, he has sidestepped attacks by Communists, who, like many voters, suspect that privatization swindled them of their share of the nation’s assets.

On Friday, Chubais’ enemies denounced his reappointment. Communist Party leader Gennady A. Zyuganov called it “a mockery of common sense and of all citizens impoverished by privatization.”

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.