Yeltsin hints at action

President Boris Yeltsin has hinted that he might personally intervene in resolving the impasse in Moscow's negotiations with the Internat...

President Boris Yeltsin has hinted that he might personally intervene in resolving the impasse in Moscow’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the release of fresh credit to Russia.

Earlier, the president had unceremoniously dismissed the executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Boris Berezovsky, who had been blaming a senior minister of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov’s cabinet of creating hurdles in obtaining new credits.

Two senior members of the Primakov ministry, first deputy premier Yuri Maslyukov and Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov, whose imminent dismissal from the cabinet was the talk of the town for the last few days, rushed to Sochi yesterday to hold discussions with Primakov, now holidaying at the Crimean Sea resort.

The prime minister had told mediapersons yesterday that his predictions about the IMF finally agreeing to extend credit would come true, as the director general of the international finance body, Michel Camdessus, has written along letter to him and would also meet him soon at the capital.

Despite Kremlin’s denials about the president’s intention to sack some of Primakov’s close colleagues, political observers here underline the unpredictability of the president, who they claim has usually acted quite contrary to his public pronouncements.