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Russia's New Prime Minister

Putin's Obscure Hardliner

By Uwe Klussmann in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin dissolved his government on Wednesday and nominated a little known ally, Viktor Zubkov, to be Russia's new prime minister. Zubkov is stepping into the shoes of Mikhail Fradkov, whose own achievements in the office were unremarkable at best.

Russian President Vladimir Putin loves to surprise the public and even his trusted friends with his personnel choices. With his new choice for the head of government, he has done it again.

Viktor Zubkov is expected to be confirmed as Russian prime minister on Friday by the country's lower house of parliament, the Duma, which is dominated by Putin loyalists. But the 65-year-old Zubkov, whose birthday is on Saturday, is far from being a household name in Russia, even if long-serving officers in the security agencies speak of him with respect.

During the Soviet era, Zubkov was a senior official in the Communist Party in then Leningrad. In 1991, he was promoted to Putin's deputy in the external trade committee of the St. Petersburg city administration. Ten years later, Putin, who had become president by that stage, appointed him boss of the Financial Monitoring Service in the Finance Ministry. Since March 2004, the financial watchdog has been an independent authority mainly charged with combating cross-border money laundering. Its publicity-shy head is regarded as a hardliner.

The previous prime minister, Mikhail Fradkov, who resigned Wednesday, was hardly better known to many normal Russian citizens than his successor. As prime minister, he was formally the second most important man in the state. However the politician kept a low public profile, and the news of his resignation was received largely with indifference.

Fradkov, a heavy-set man in his mid-fifties, acted for three-and-a-half years pretty much as Putin's yes man. Putin appreciates such things, and Fradkov has now received an Order of Service to the Fatherland, first degree -- the highest award a hard-working civil servant can get. His predecessor Mikhail Kasyanov, whom Putin dismissed in February 2004, did not get an award when he left. Instead, as an opposition politician, he now feels the strong arm of Putin's policemen when he takes part in demonstrations. With Fradkov, a defection to the opposition is not to be expected.

Fradkov's career, like Putin's, was early on connected with the Soviet secret service. At the age of 23, the son of a Jewish family and graduate of the Foreign Trade Academy was already active as an "economic adviser" in the Soviet embassy in India -- a popular cover for Soviet spies. From being a department head in the Soviet Ministry for Foreign Trade, he rose after the break-up of the USSR to become the Deputy for Foreign Economic Relations in the new Russia. He served Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev and later Boris Yeltsin and then Putin.

After a spell as general manager of a large Moscow insurance company in 1999, the economist was promoted by Putin to the post of Deputy Secretary of the Security Council. It was led at that time by then First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, a close friend of Putin. Ivanov is said to have recommended Fradkov in 2004 to Putin for the post of the head of government. In the Security Council, Fradkov was regarded as an expert on the world economy -- including "grey" and criminal financial flows.

Fradkov's overall performance as prime minister was not overly impressive. Despite economic growth of more than 6 percent and increasing oil revenues, the country is far from making the transition to modern high technology industries which Putin has repeatedly demanded. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow, as does the gap between prospering and declining regions. In the northern Caucasus, particularly in the republic of Ingushetia, whole areas are on the brink of armed uprising.

The militant rebellion in the impoverished Muslim areas near the Caucasus Mountains is fed by widespread corruption, which became even worse during Fradkov's term as prime minister. The staid bureaucrat did almost nothing to bring it under control. In terms of his character, he was not a man who liked to "tighten screws," as his comrades from the security authorities encourage their president to do.

A Moscow journalist once joked that Fradkov was really a well-known comedian from Odessa, who bears a resemblance to the former prime minister. But the mood has changed in Moscow, and clowns are no longer desired. These days, hardliners are back in demand.