by Dmitry Zaks
MOSCOW, Feb 2 (AFP)
President Boris Yeltsin once again confounded his doctors and critics on Tuesday as he unexpectedly rushed to the Kremlin for the first time this year just days after being discharged from hospital.0
Yeltsin made his 1999 debut despite doctors� prognoses that Russia�s often-ailing and politically isolated leader would need several more weeks off work after being struck down by an acute stomach ulcer.
His re-entrance on Russia�s political stage came amid an escalating row between Yeltsin�s government and a powerful oil and media tycoon jockeying for influence with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov.
Yeltsin had checked out of the hospital after a two-week stay in time to celebrate his 68th birthday Monday in the company of family and close aides.
But Yeltsin has still not uttered a single word in public this year and Russian television carried no footage of the president in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
His press office said Yeltsin spent about two hours in the office before returning to the Barvikha sanatorium west of Moscow for more rest.
Yeltsin�s first order of business was to recommend that Russia�s upper chamber of parliament approve the resignation of prosecutor general Yury Skuratov.
The experienced chief prosecutor had tendered his resignation on Monday after he complained of poor health and accused certain Moscow�s political forces of impeding his work.
Skuratov had been engaged in a bitter battle with Russia�s Central Bank which he accused of pilfering more than one billion dollars in the course of Russia�s financial meltdown last year.
Yeltsin had recently criticised Skuratov for failing to solve a series of high-profile murders and political assassinations that included the Saint Petersburg slaying of liberal icon Galina Starovoytova.
The Kremlin chief has made a habit of shaking up his staff after prolonged spells of illness as part of a bid to demonstrate that his political muscle was still strong.
But he has remained supportive of Primakov�s government in the face of a fresh attack launched by Boris Berezovsky, widely considered as the epitome of the Russian �oligarch.�
The powerful business baron had once wielded huge influence in the Kremlin and his fingerprints have been seen behind a succession of �palace intrigues.�
Former premier Sergei Kiriyenko said Berezovsky waged a tireless campaign to drive him from office and Primakov has also implicitly accused the businessman of scheming against him.
The national ORT television station in which Berezovsky wields influence through a minor stake accused Primakov on Saturday of trying to oust Yeltsin from power by establishing direct control over the media and Russia�s defense forces.
A government press spokesman brushed aside the station�s attack, adding that Primakov was too busy to enter a public dispute with Berezovsky, who now acts as a secretary for the Commonwealth of Independent States that loosely groups 12 former Soviet republics.
Primakov �feels that senior foreign affairs officials (Berezovsky) should pay attention to their own work instead of criticising the (Russian) prime minister,� spokesman Igor Shchogolev told a press briefing.
Berezovsky in turn has been accused by one popular Moscow daily of spying on Yeltsin and his family, a charge that resulted in Moscow police and prosecutors on Tuesday raiding the offices of the Sibneft oil company that Berezovsky founded.
Shchogolev said the raid was linked to a crime investigation but did not disclose its nature and denied it was linked to the Primakov-Berezovsky feud.
This week the regular annual international economic forum has adjourned its work in Davos. When making evaluation of the forum one should point out that its principal advantage is that the participants, the leading economists and politicians of the international level are given the possibility to discuss vital issues, share general ideas and develop a single strategy in informal atmosphere without keeping any minutes. Though they held over 300 open discussions in the frames of the forum, the main meetings were held in private at cup of coffee.
The international economic crisis became the principal point of the forum this time. Taking into account global scales of financial perturbations, mainstream of experts was unanimous in the opinion about the role of the globalization process, as the basis of the future international economic system.
Admitting inevitability of the globalization they agreed that the process requires certain corrections.
It is interesting that the free capital flow is considered the main culprit of the crisis. Injection and taking out huge sums of so called �hot money� has a fatal impact on unprepared markets.
Some experts even proposed to refuse �hot money� and intensify the work over the direct investing to the real economic sector and to real production projects.
On the other hand Jorge Soros, the well-known multi-millionaire proposed a new model, where the International Monetary Fund would play a role of an international central bank. The bank�s functions woul include giving loans to needy countries. He also proposed making a list of countries, which meet and do not meet certain financial requirements. In this connection two questions arise. First, practically all instruments of the IMF proved to be unworkable against the background of the international crisis, though Stanley Fisher, while speaking at the forum strongly refused ant critical remarks.
Second, the issue on criteria for the countries to receive loans remains open.
Taking into account the influence of the USA upon the IMF, one may suppose that this new structure will contribute to strengthening Washington�s positions as a world leader.
In addition, we may not disregard the fact that international organizations are turning into powerful levers of political influence and that establishment of the international central bank will deepen this tendency.
Speaking on the role of politics in the economic sector, it is worth to point out the speech of Henry Kissenger, former State Secretary of the USA, who stressed the incompatibility of political and economic structures. He clearly revealed the situation, when politicians in order to please the community, suffering from certain social problems conflicted with the economic expedience. Such situation is currently typical for example in Russia. The forum in Davos made Kazakstan think over a number of issues. The country should focus special attention on the statements of Mr. Soros, and not only on those about the establishment of the international central bank. Mr. Soros pointed out that the Central Asian countries have large possibilities for investments, lacking however necessary conditions.
Rashid Dusembayev.
Translation �INSEL