Rashid DYUSEMBAEV
ALMATY, May 24 (THE GLOBE)
At the present time, investors are attentively watching the formation of the new Russian government, and for the time being they cannot evaluate Stepashin�s cabinet. Though information that deputy Zhukov�s refusal to enter the composition of Stepashin�s government was perceived as negative news by the business circles.
In opinion of a foreign investor, as stated in his interview to �AK&M�, the Stepashin government is running the risk of facing a situation in which there will be no strong economic block in the government - that was one of the weak aspects of Primakov�s government.
Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin announced on the TV program �Itogi�, that he would meet the Russian President in Sochi and would present to him there, the �base� of his future government. The structure of the government as well as the �key� Ministers would be approved at the location.
Stepashin stated that he was going to insist on two first deputies of the Prime Minister, one of whom will be responsible for the macroeconomic problems. The Russian Prime Minister would like to see Alexander Zhukov in this post.
According to the experts, at this phase it is difficult to predict the efficacy of the future government, as it is still unknown, who will be responsible for the economic-financial sector and for the current monetary policy in Russia.
THE GLOBE will write about further development of the events.
BERLIN, May 24 (AFP)
Germany was to hold a celebration Monday to mark the 50th anniversary of its post-war democratic government, the day after the country showed continuity by electing the republic�s eighth president.
The state celebration, with some 1,500 guests, was to be held in the renovated Reichstag, the same building that was a crucial part of pre-war German history and where the parliament will meet regularly once the government�s move to Berlin is completed in the coming months.
Outgoing president Roman Herzog was to make the keynote speech. He was replaced Sunday by Johannes Rau in a vote by a national convention sitting in the Reichstag, but Rau will not take office until July 1.
The presidential election was held against the background of the 50th anniversary and the government�s upcoming move from the West German capital, Bonn, to Berlin.
Parliament speaker Wolfgang Thierse, who chaired the convention, said the election was a sign that the democratic consensus on peace, freedom, justice and human rights would not change.
The actual anniversary day was in fact Sunday, 50 years after the West German state, the Federal Republic of Germany, was created on May 23, 1949 in a divided Germany.
Germany has been reunited since 1990, following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the end of communist East Germany.
While many in the former East Germany look back on a troubled past and face an uncertain present of high unemployment, westerners can review 50 years of economic growth and stability.
The Federal Republic was proclaimed nine months after Josef Stalin called for Berlin to be named capital of East Germany, effectively turning the Russian and western occupation zones into two separate countries.
At the time, post-war West Germany had no military force of its own and was a member of no collective security system.
Fifty years on, it is flying military missions over Yugoslavia as a member of NATO.
And reunified Germany celebrates the anniversary as both president of the European Union and of the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies, with world leaders and foreign emissaries regularly meeting in Bonn.
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