15 April 2004 20:30
Daily sees Kazakh vice premier`s dismissal as possible move against Russia
The dismissal of the Kazakh deputy prime minister, Grigoriy Marchenko, from his post can be seen as a move against
Russia, argues a leading Russian daily. The paper believes that Marchenko who was one of the authors of the pension
reform, the insurance reform, mortgage crediting, and other economic transformations carried out in Kazakhstan over the
past decade was sacked because President Nazarbayev is about to "abandon the course of liberal reforms". The
paper also alleges that it was getting very awkward for the incumbent prime minister to see his deputy being more
influential than the head of government. The following is the text of report by Russian newspaper Kommersant on 15
April:
Yesterday Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev released First Vice Premier Grigoriy Marchenko, a liberal
economist well known in the country, from his post. Mr Marchenko's dismissal came just a few days after his return
from Moscow, where he had taken part in an international economic forum whose participants were received by President
Vladimir Putin. And Moscow could very well see this as a move against itself.
The 45-year-old Grigoriy Marchenko, a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, became first
vice premier in January after leaving his post as head of Kazakhstan's National Bank, which he had held for over
five years. He was one of the authors of the pension reform, the insurance reform, mortgage crediting, and other
economic transformations carried out in Kazakhstan over the past decade.
Many people predicted Grigoriy Marchenko would become the country's prime minister. People in Kazakhstan even
said that Daniyal Akhmetov was premier de jure but Mr Marchenko was premier de facto. But President Nazarbayev has
decided otherwise. Yesterday, to many people's surprise, he dismissed Grigoriy Marchenko from the post of vice
premier, appointing him as his aide, which many people in Astana have already called "exile to places
unknown". It is being said in Kazakhstan that the country's government has thus been deprived of its last
liberal - the previous dismissal of liberal economists from the government was in late 2001, when the
"Kazakhstan's Democratic Choice" movement was created and many liberals were among is founders.
Yesterday there were only unofficial comments in Astana on Mr Marchenko's dismissal. "He did not get on
with Premier Daniyal Akhmetov, and back in January a certain hostility could be seen in their relations," your
Kommersant correspondent was told by a functionary close to Mr Marchenko. Daniyal Akhmetov was allegedly angered by his
deputy's mounting influence and the premier "pushed" for his dismissal.
It is curious that Grigoriy Marchenko's dismissal came soon after his return from the Moscow economic forum
"A Liberal Programme for the New Century: A Global View" in which a number of world-famous economists took
part. At the end of the forum Mr Marchenko, together with several other participants, was received by Vladimir Putin,
who asked the Kazakhstani vice premier about his experience in conducting the pension reform in the country. So
yesterday's edict from the Kazakhstani president could very well be seen in Moscow not only as Astana's
intention to abandon the course of liberal reforms in the economy but also as a move aimed at Russia.
[Kommersant] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
