Yeltsin nominates Primakov as PM

MOSCOW, Sept 10 (AP) — The Russian President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, today nominated the Foreign Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, to be the Prime Minister in a bid to end bitter dispute with Parliament, which has stalled efforts to stem the economic crisis.

Government officials said Mr Yeltsin nominated Mr Primakov after Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin asked the President not to nominate him Prime Minister for a third time.

"I cannot harm Russia. Russia has had enough upheavals this century. This is my choice," Mr Chernomyrdin said.

Mr Yeltsin made the decision to nominate Mr Primakov after meeting him and Mr Chernomyrdin at the Kremlin.

The Communist-dominated lower chamber of Parliament, the state Duma, had already indicated it would agree to Mr Primakov as Premier, Mr Yeltsin and the Duma have been locked in a bitter two-week battle that stalled the formation of a new government after Mr Chernomyrdin was rejected twice.

Mr Primakov, 68, a former Soviet foreign policy expert, is seen as a technocrat, not ideologically linked to any political faction. He has been criticised in the West for taking a less liberal line on foreign relations.

He was named foreign minister in January, 1996, and has been praised by most of Russia's political factions for doing a good job.

But while Mr Primakov was expected to be approved, it was not clear if he would be able to do much to fix the country's economic crisis. Although seen as a competent administrator, his field of expertise is foreign relations, not economic policy.

In December, 1991, he was named head of the Russian foreign intelligence service after years of working in Soviet government agencies and political think-tanks. A former Soviet leader, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, picked him as one of his closest aides during the reform period of the 1980s.

In 1989-1990 he worked as a speaker of one of the houses of Soviet Parliament.

In 1990, he became Mr Gorbachev's special adviser for foreign policy issues and in 1991, became widely known in the West for his efforts to avert a Gulf war by direct negotiations with Saddam Hussein.

Unlike most of Mr Gorbachev's allies, he remained in the government after the Soviet collapse and has worked closely with Mr Yeltsin in recent years.

The Duma had twice rejected Mr Chernomyrdin. If it rejects Mr Yeltsin's nominee a third time, the President would be forced by law to dissolve Parliament and call new elections.

A Communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, warned that the Duma would begin immediate impeachment proceedings against Mr Yeltsin if he nominated Mr Chernomyrdin a third time. A vote to start impeachment proceedings blocks Mr Yeltsin from dissolving the Duma.