New Premier Vows to Help Ordinary Folk

While pledging to continue economic reforms, new Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov said he will try to make them easier on impoverished Russians by restoring the social safety net and paying overdue wages. “We cannot conduct reforms that affect the people adversely,” Primakov said at a Cabinet meeting. “If therapy drags out for decades, and no gleam of light is seen, it is certainly not in the interests of the country, not in the interests of the people.” But besides repeating his predecessors’ pledge to improve tax collection, Primakov provided few details on where his government will get the money to carry out his plans.