U.S. Cautiously Welcomes Russia Choice

Senior Clinton administration officials and independent Russia experts extended a cautious welcome Thursday to the nomination of Yevgeny M. Primakov to be Russia’s next prime minister, lauding his efforts to engage with the West but voicing concern about perceived shortcomings.

The 68-year-old acting foreign minister, they noted, has little experience in guiding a nation’s economy, has no strong political base within Russia and would come to the premiership with no immediate plan for steering his beleaguered nation back from the brink of economic chaos.

One U.S. official also worried aloud whether Primakov’s conservative instincts would mesh well with what many Western experts view as the obvious need for immediate, draconian reform in Russia.

That said, U.S. officials cited several grounds for optimism.

They noted that Primakov has forged good relations across a broader range of the Russian political spectrum than his predecessors, giving him a better chance to work constructively with both Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and the Duma, the Communist-dominated lower house of parliament.

He appears to be untarnished by corruption and has no visible support among the wealthy businesspeople known collectively as “the oligarchs,” many of whom had backed Yeltsin’s original choice for the post, Viktor S. Chernomyrdin.

As foreign minister, Primakov has developed a close working relationship with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. At a banquet in July in Manila following a meeting of foreign ministers, they performed together in a parody of the musical “West Side Story” (Primakov played Tony; Albright, Maria). At last week’s U.S.-Russian summit in Moscow, the two held extended formal meetings, then sat together to hear President Clinton address a group of young Russians.

“Prime Minister-designate Primakov is well known to Secretary Albright and many of us at the department, and he enjoys considerable respect,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin told reporters.

During Primakov’s tenure as foreign minister, the United States and Russia frequently have shared common goals, although they just as frequently have disagreed on how to achieve them. For example, Primakov has steadfastly opposed U.S. threats to use military force to enforce international mandates in Iraq and the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

In the upper levels of the State Department, Primakov is viewed as neither pro- nor anti-American. But he is clearly seen as pro-Russian.

Rubin characterized Primakov as “a skillful, dedicated and effective advocate of what he understands to be the Russian national interest.”

During his 2 1/2 years as foreign minister, Primakov has ended a growing disquiet among leading Russians who believed that the Kremlin’s foreign policy had become a servant of U.S. interests, yet he accomplished this without resorting to inflammatory rhetoric or posturing.

“He accepts Russia is a part of Western civilization, but that it’s not going to be a superpower again in the near future,” said Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom, a Washington-based think tank.

In a related development, the International Monetary Fund signaled Thursday that it was unlikely to disburse a $4.3-billion loan installment for Russia on Tuesday, as previously scheduled, and will not provide more money for Moscow until the new government prepares a solid economic plan.

The IMF’s position is likely to increase pressure on Primakov to develop a new economic recovery program as soon as the Duma approves his nomination, which is expected today. The IMF disbursed an initial installment of $4.8 billion in July.

Times staff writers Art Pine and Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.