Moscow
President Vladimir Putin surprised Russians this week by appointing as prime minister a technocrat who is relatively unknown in political circles. Mikhail Fradkov is widely expected to carry out Putin’s programs without offering criticism—unlike his predecessor, the outspoken Yeltsin appointee Mikhail Kasyanov, whom Putin fired last week. “Fradkov is an experienced specialist on international economic relations,” former economics minister Yevgenii Yasin told Radio Liberty. “But I personally have never seen him come up with ideas, generate initiatives, and so on. And evidently that is not required of him.”
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