By Vitaly PORTNYKOV, The Day
Viktor Chernomyrdin and Yevgeny Primakov seen at the same dacha discussing
the possibility of an IMF loan - a normal and logical sight; who could
the current Russian Premier consult but his immediate predecessor in the
first place?
Viktor Chernomyrdin, Albert Gore, and Michel Camdessus in Washington
- also quite normal, considering that the Russian Premier has had to communicate
with them, including private meetings and hunting trips, for so many years.
Why not use Mr. Chernomyrdin's good image in getting further US loans?
Russian TV news anchors explain that former US presidents carry out important
tasks entrusted them by their successors.
However, many tend to overlook the big difference between the status
of a former US President and Russian Premier. Jimmy Carter is now into
being a peace-keeper and go-between, not because the State Department is
no longer trusted or lacks staff experts. The Russian government turned
to Mr. Chernomyrdin precisely because it had transpired that he was the
only one unable to hold qualified and effective talks with the IMF and
that the whole affair could well end in the total financial fiasco of the
Russian Cabinet, then under Primakov, and that of the Russian state; that
the Russian Premier's visit to the United States, during which the destiny
of the loan is to be decided, looks very unprepared. Turning to Chernomyrdin
is proof of what could be easily guessed at the time Primakov formed his
Cabinet: the Cabinet's utter lack of professionalism and the prevalence
of has-beens... Against the backdrop of all efforts to contrary, the historic
Chernomyrdin emerged as a figure more modern than current top-level bureaucrats
(expect anyone to say that Jimmy Carter cuts a more modern figure than
Bill Clinton?).
In the meantime Chernomyrdin was more cautious than Primakov while in
office. When made Premier he did not visit Camdessus. Instead, he sent
Gaidar and Chubais, and invited him to go hunting only after the Cabinet's
image had taken shape, whatever it was. Primakov offered Western financiers
Masliukov of the State Planning Committee, so he can be now kept hidden
somewhere abroad like a skeleton in the closet whenever an IMF mission
visits Moscow. Indeed, it would have been better had he himself gone.






