SHOKHIN PREDICTS CHUBAIS WILL SOON LOSE HIS REMAINING GOVERNMENT POST.

Interviewed last night on Russian TV, the leader of the pro-government "Russia is Our Home" faction in the parliament, Aleksandr Shokhin, said that the process of re-shuffling the Russian government may be "far from complete." It is quite possible, he said, that the ousting of Anatoly Chubais from his post as First Deputy Prime Minister will be discussed at a meeting of the "big four" (President Boris Yeltsin, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, and the speakers of the two houses of the Russian parliament) scheduled for December 4. Shokhin predicted that the Communist faction in the State Duma will charge Duma speaker Gennady Seleznev with voicing this demand. He predicted also that the Communist faction will back this demand up with a threat that the Duma will pass the 1998 federal budget and the draft tax code only if Yeltsin sacks Chubais. It is for this reason, Shokhin said, that the Duma has postponed its debate on the budget from November to December 5. (NTV, November 24)

Chubais was the object of more public humiliation yesterday when Prime Minister Chernomyrdin gave verbal instructions before leaving on an official visit to Vietnam that First Deputy Premier Boris Nemtsov should stand in for him during his absence. In the past, that role was fulfilled by Chubais. According to a decision reached at the time of the last government reshuffle in March, Chubais was entrusted with acting the premier’s part during Chernomyrdin’s absences from Moscow. (RTR, November 24) Meanwhile, Nemtsov’s post as Minister of Fuel and Energy has gone to Sergei Kirienko, until now the First Deputy Minister. (RTR, November 24)

Yeltsin Meets New Finance Minister.