Yeltsin Names Top Diplomat Premier

A politically weakened Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin yielded to his opponents Thursday and named acting Foreign Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov, a skilled diplomat untested in running the economy, as a compromise candidate for prime minister.

The nomination was welcomed by Yeltsin’s major foes--the Communist and pro-market faction leaders in the Duma, parliament’s lower house. They quickly announced that they will back Primakov, apparently ensuring his confirmation in a vote scheduled for today.

“This is the most reasonable decision, and Primakov will undoubtedly receive the support of the state Duma,” predicted Gennady N. Seleznyov, a Communist and chairman of the lower house.

Yeltsin’s decision brings to a close a tumultuous political crisis in which Communists at one point talked of seizing control of the government and reasserting state authority over Russia’s sinking economy.

Primakov, 68, the former chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, has managed to stay above the political fray but must now attempt to forge a consensus and halt the nation’s economic slide.

Although Yeltsin made the decision to pick Primakov, the choice represents a major defeat for the president, who was forced by the Communist-dominated Duma to cast aside his original choice for the post, former Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin.

While Yeltsin is one of Russia’s most resilient figures, bouncing back from political defeats and ill health in the past, some analysts predicted that his remaining power will diminish quickly and that the 67-year-old president may soon step down, leaving Primakov to organize early presidential elections.

“With the nomination of Primakov, it has become crystal clear that Yeltsin’s early retirement is imminent,” said Andrei A. Piontkovsky, director of the Independent Institute for Strategic Studies. “A leader who has been humiliated so gravely cannot be a leader any more. This is the way it works in Russia. As of today, Yeltsin is a political corpse.”

Primakov, delivering a previously scheduled speech at an international conference, gave few hints about the course he would take if confirmed as prime minister but said Russia should be a force in world affairs despite its problems at home.

“There are those today who believe Russia is incapable of pursuing an active foreign policy,” he told the Interparliamentary Union. “They argue that Russia should first get out of its economic crisis [and] complete the reform of the military before putting itself on the map. . . . This view does not stand up to criticism.”

One of the first tasks Primakov would face is naming a Cabinet to run the government. The Kremlin hinted that he would form a broad-based group, drawing ministers from the pro-market and Communist parties.

But some officials questioned whether Primakov will have the fortitude to impose the strict kind of austerity program widely seen as needed to rebuild Russia’s industrial base and revive the economy.

“I am extremely skeptical because very strong political will is required--and the ability of the prime minister to say and do extremely unpopular things,” said Vladimir A. Mau, head of the government’s Working Center for Economic Reforms. “I am not sure that Yevgeny Maximovich [Primakov] has the guts and the opportunities to do it.”

The announcement of Primakov’s nomination came as the ruble grew stronger for the second day in a row, rising officially to a value of 12.8 to the dollar, from 15.8 on Wednesday. But the government reported that, as a result of the ruble’s previous drop, prices rose 35.1% during the first week of September.

Russia’s economic and political crisis was sparked Aug. 17 when the government of then-Prime Minister Sergei V. Kiriyenko announced that some short-term debt payments would be frozen and the ruble--then worth 6.2 to the dollar--would be devalued.

A week later, Yeltsin fired Kiriyenko and called on Chernomyrdin to come back as prime minister. But Chernomyrdin, who is widely blamed for helping to bring on Russia’s economic chaos during five years as prime minister that ended in March, was rejected twice by the Duma.

Legislative leaders had pledged to vote against Chernomyrdin a third time if Yeltsin nominated him again, which would have triggered a constitutional provision requiring Yeltsin to disband the Duma. Some Communists had threatened to use the confrontation to incite mass protest against the government and attempt to seize power in what they predicted would be civil war.

On Monday, after Chernomyrdin’s second defeat in the Duma, Yeltsin went into seclusion for two days at his country estate outside Moscow, holding meetings with Chernomyrdin and Primakov before finally giving in to his opponents.

Analysts said a key factor for Yeltsin and his inner circle was working out guarantees for the safety and financial security of the president and his family should he resign.

As a compromise candidate, one of Primakov’s assets was his apparent lack of ambition to become president. At the age of 68, and as a Jew in a country at times prone to anti-Semitism, he would have little chance of winning national office.

Of the candidates for the premiership, including Moscow Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov and retired Gen. Alexander I. Lebed, Primakov has the most in common with Yeltsin personally. Nearly the same age, they both rose through the Communist Party apparatus together during the Soviet era. Primakov was the one Yeltsin could trust most, analysts said.

While the various factions are uniting behind Primakov today, it will not be long before would-be presidential candidates begin jockeying for position and undermining the prime minister, predicted Leonid A. Radzikhovsky, commentator with the daily newspaper Sevodnya.

“Primakov is not likely to keep this post for a long time. He is a stopgap measure,” he maintained. “The political and economic crisis will continue. Nominating Primakov will have the same effect as setting the parking brake on a speeding car.”

Before Primakov’s appointment was made public, Chernomyrdin announced that he was withdrawing his name from consideration as prime minister because he did not want to contribute to the possibility of a violent power struggle.

“I cannot harm Russia,” he said. “Russia has had enough upheavals this century. . . . The Duma felt a practical possibility of seizing power and changing the course. This is a mistake. It should not be allowed. It would be followed by bloodshed, and the world would shudder.”

In the Duma, five of the seven major factions said they would support Primakov, including the three Communist-oriented blocs. Together, the five factions control a majority in the 450-seat house.

“Good sense has prevailed this time,” Communist Party leader Gennady A. Zyuganov said. “Everyone understands that we need a consolidating figure. . . . Primakov is known around the world, where he stands up for Russia’s interests. This will be good for Russia.”

Alexander N. Shokhin, leader of Chernomyrdin’s Our Home Is Russia faction, also pledged his support. “Yevgeny Primakov is a politician equally distant from all political forces,” he said. “Therefore he can be trusted with forming a government.”

Some of those who had been suggested as candidates for prime minister were gracious in their support of Primakov.

“I welcome this decision,” said Lebed, the retired general who is now governor of the Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia. “The absence of authority, bordering on chaos, was dangerous for Russia.”

Yegor S. Stroyev, the governor of the Orel region in southwestern Russia and chairman of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, agreed: “This is the only proper candidate. Primakov is a compromise figure capable of reconciling everyone. There is no more important task today than for all branches of power to learn to hear each other and agree with each other.”