RUSSIA GETS NEW FOREIGN MINISTER.

With the departure of Yevgeny Primakov from the Foreign Ministry post, the shake-up in Russia’s diplomatic and security establishments continued over the weekend. On September 11 Primakov named Igor Ivanov to replace himself as foreign minister. Ivanov, Russian first deputy foreign minister since January of 1994, is a hold-over from the era of Andrei Kozyrev–democratic Russia’s first foreign minister and a man generally described as far more pro-Western than Primakov. Ivanov was born in 1945 and has spent much of his career involved in European affairs. He served from 1991 to 1994 as first Soviet–and then Russian–Ambassador to Spain. He is fluent in Spanish and England. (Itar-Tass, September 12)

In another move that may carry some implications for Russian foreign policymaking, Sergei Yastrzhembsky was released on September 12 from his post as deputy head of the Russian president’s administration and as presidential press secretary. (Russian agencies, September 12) Yastrzhembsky had also served since last year as one of Boris Yeltsin’s foreign policy advisers. In April of this year it was rumored that Yastrzhembsky was seeking to replace Primakov in the Foreign Ministry post. (Russian agencies, April 20) Yastrzhembsky denied the rumor, but it is unclear whether there were any tensions between the president’s foreign policy advisers and Primakov’s Foreign Ministry.

YELTSIN FIRES PRESS SECRETARY.