Putin Retains Familiar Faces in Administration

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin signaled Saturday that the oligarchs and insiders who reigned during the Yeltsin era will continue to wield great influence at the Kremlin.

Filling the last major posts in his administration, Putin named Alexander S. Voloshin as his chief of staff--the same job Voloshin held during the final nine months of President Boris N. Yeltsin’s rule.

By retaining Voloshin, a onetime businessman with links to billionaire Boris A. Berezovsky, Putin has given a major role in his administration to a central member of “The Family”--the clique of wealthy tycoons and Yeltsin family members who were said to run the Kremlin during much of the former president’s second term.

“It has become crystal clear that Putin is still unable to climb out of The Family’s pocket,” said Liliya F. Shevtsova, a political analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, a think tank. “The old ruling corporation that is widely known as The Family is happy with Putin, who meets their requirements fully.”

Although some Western pundits have expressed hope that Putin will reverse Russia’s slide into bandit capitalism and promote a market economy, his appointments make it clear that he is unwilling--or unable--to break with the past.

The appointment of Voloshin comes a week before President Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Moscow for his first summit with Putin. The agenda will include discussing nuclear disarmament and Russia’s struggling economy.

Voloshin, 44, who is credited with masterminding Putin’s election victory in March, joins the list of top Putin appointees who have ties to influential oligarchs. Among those linked to Berezovsky and other wealthy businessmen are Prime Minister Mikhail M. Kasyanov, Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, Interior Minister Vladimir B. Rushailo, Justice Minister Yuri Chaika and Railways Minister Nikolai Y. Aksyonenko.

“One should always bear in mind where Putin emerged from. He was literally created by The Family,” said Andrei A. Piontkovsky, director of the Moscow-based Independent Institute for Strategic Studies. “They did not make a mistake. As long as Putin remains Russia’s president, they can be sure that all the perks and guarantees of personal safety will remain valid, and they can be sure that they will continue to control the situation.”

Voloshin worked in Soviet times at a market research institute. In 1997, he took a job in the office of the presidential chief of staff, rising to the top job in March 1999. Some say Voloshin played an important role in carrying out the wishes of Tatyana Dyachenko, Yeltsin’s younger daughter and political advisor, who was said to make key decisions in the ailing president’s name.

Voloshin retained the post of chief of staff after Yeltsin stepped down in December and Putin became acting president.

When Putin won the presidency in a special election in March, his ministers and staff members, most of them holdovers from the Yeltsin era, turned in their resignations. Since then, Putin has reappointed almost of all them to their jobs.

“The appointments of Family people to top government positions, including the prosecutor and the chief of staff, are direct proof of the president’s dependence on the old ruling elite,” Shevtsova said.

For the oligarchs, who acquired vast holdings during the 1990s through the questionable privatization of government assets, the post of prosecutor is one of the most important in the government.

Last year, then-Prosecutor General Yuri I. Skuratov was on the verge of having Berezovsky arrested when the official himself was suspended after a video surfaced on Russian television showing a man who appeared to be Skuratov with two prostitutes.

Earlier this month, Putin was set to appoint Dmitri Kozak as prosecutor and had sent his nomination to parliament when the Kremlin reversed course and said Putin had nominated Ustinov for the job.

Russian newspapers reported that Putin had been overruled by Voloshin, who, acting on behalf of The Family, wanted the more loyal Ustinov to serve in the sensitive post.

“The appointment of Vladimir Ustinov as prosecutor general was the culmination of the campaign waged by The Family to stay in power,” Piontkovsky said.

It is a sign of Voloshin’s general unpopularity that the Kremlin waited to announce his appointment until Saturday evening, a time when Russians are partying at their dachas and papers are closed for the weekend.

In a separate decree, Putin named the members of his Security Council and reappointed its secretary, Sergei Ivanov. Like Putin, Ivanov was a career KGB agent in Soviet times.