ZHUKOV WILL PROBABLY BE ECONOMICS TSAR, BUT AKSENENKO SAYS HE’LL RUN THE ECONOMY.

A fight is clearly shaping up around who will get the key posts in the new Russian cabinet. Stepashin said he will only name the cabinet once he is confirmed (see the Monitor, May 17). Aleksandr Zhukov, however, head of the Duma’s budget committee, has reportedly already spoken with Stepashin about assuming the post of first deputy prime minister in charge of the economy and went so far as to say yesterday that he will accept the post on “certain conditions.” Meanwhile, Nikolai Aksenenko, the railroads minister named a first deputy prime minister following Primakov’s ouster, said in an interview published today that, following the prime minister’s confirmation and the appointment of the cabinet, he will probably be put in charge of the “entire economic block.”

Aksenenko is widely believed to be close to Roman Abramovich, head of the giant Sibneft oil company, which is part of the tycoon Boris Berezovsky’s business empire. Zhukov, on other hand, is said to be close to Anatoly Chubais, who currently heads United Energy Systems, Russia’s electricity grid. Thus battle lines, it appears, are being drawn.

According to a reconstruction of the events leading up to Primakov’s firing, Yeltsin originally planned to appoint Aksenenko, not Stepashin, as prime minister. However Aksenenko’s appointment–which was said to be pushed by Berezovsky and Abramovich, was reportedly scuttled, however, by–among others–Chubais. According to unnamed sources, Chubais pointed to Yeltsin’s tenuous health and asked: “And what will we do if he [Aksenenko] suddenly becomes acting president?”

This reconstruction of events, if accurate, gives an interesting insight into what observers in Russia are increasingly calling the “collective Yeltsin.” According to the account, the people who were involved in the decision to sack Primakov (besides Yeltsin himself) were Tatyana Dyachenko, the president’s daughter and adviser; Berezovsky; Abramovich; Aleksandr Voloshin, Kremlin administration chief; Chubais; and Most chief Vladimir Gusinsky (Vlast, May 18).

STEPASHIN LIKELY TO CONTINUE PRIMAKOV’S ECONOMIC “POLICY.”