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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Primakov Will Not Try to Outsmart Anyone?

1 December, 1998 - 00:00

Prime Ministers of 12 CIS countries (see photo) met in Moscow to
discuss common ways of alleviating the difficult economic situation and
joint measures to weather the financial crisis. According to Russian Premier
Yevgeny Primakov, their ideas will be brought together in a separate document
which will become a plan for joint management of the economic crisis.

The Russian Prime Minister also attached much importance to the issue
of reforming the CIS structure. The main report on the issue was made by
CIS Executive Secretary Boris Berezovsky. According to Primakov, the meeting
attendees "heeded the proposed restructuring plan."

Meanwhile, many analysts point out that Berezovsky, while still in control
of "traffic in Kremlin corridors," has lately been losing his influence,
which is generally attributed to the appointment of Yevgeny Primakov as
Russia's Prime Minister.

This can have several explanations. First, Primakov, unlike, say, Chernomyrdin
or Lebed, does not owe anything to Berezovsky. Secondly, Primakov, after
heading Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service for a long time, has sufficient
information about and influence on one of the most professional and at
the same time most closed Russian law enforcement bodies. Finally, and
most importantly, Primakov does not seem to have any intentions to play
secret games with Berezovsky.

And this, obviously, is the most beneficial position for him, because
nobody has yet been able to beat or use Berezovsky when playing by his
rules. Witness the words of another good specialist in secret intrigues,
formerly head of the Russian President's Security Service and currently
Russian Duma deputy Aleksandr Korzhakov about nobody being able to outsmart
Berezovsky.

Primakov is not trying to outsmart anybody (at least, this is how it
looks on the surface). He emphatically treats Berezovsky as a government
official, albeit a high-ranking one. And nothing more. It seems like Berezovsky
has been a little baffled by such an open state position of the Russian
Premier. However, Berezovsky would not be Berezovsky if, having failed
to put his own man in the Premier's chair, he would not have gotten actively
involved in other areas, such as, for example, CIS reform.

In the view of Moscow News, the reform mechanism proposed by
Berezovsky envisages "sovereign states turning into shareholders of a certain
political investment fund. The issue is the role that Berezovsky's model
envisions for sovereign states. If their official representatives are appointed
de facto exclusively after confirmation by the executive secretary, they
cannot control his activity. Moreover, the CIS Head of States Council would
not have to convene regularly since the executive secretary would be vested
with the right to approve any decision in "a working order" by flying from
capital to capital and obtaining the necessary signatures."

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