CHUBAIS EXPECTED TO RETURN TO GOVERNMENT.

Yeltsin’s promise this morning to bring "competent and energetic" managers into the cabinet is widely seen as a signal that Yeltsin plans to return Russia’s most radical economic reformer and efficient administrator, Anatoly Chubais, to the government. (BBC World Service, March 6) Chubais, 42, who masterminded Russia’s privatization program and was first deputy prime minister in charge of the economy until his unceremonious dismissal in January 1996, has headed the presidential administration since July of last year. More than anyone else, he has been running the state during Yeltsin’s prolonged sickness. If Chubais now returns as first deputy premier in charge of the economy, it is expected that he will do so with increased powers and that the authority of others currently holding that rank will be curtailed. Chubais’s return to government would be a sign that Yeltsin has decided that further economic liberalization is essential and that Chubais, one of Russia’s most unpopular politicians, is the best man to carry it out.

Moscow Meetings Underscore Importance of Russian Bankers.