The Grim New House of Russia : It looks as if anti-reformers are in control of Yeltsin’s Cabinet

President Boris N. Yeltsin has formed a new Cabinet that swings his government unmistakably to the right, raising worrisome questions about the very survival of Russia’s economic reforms.

This ominous shift was prompted in good part by the strong showing in last month’s parliamentary elections by ultranationalists and communists, who appealed to a public left anxious and frustrated by policies to redirect Russia toward a market economy.

The Cabinet changes, besides putting a brake on reform, could complicate Russia’s external economic relations, most notably with the International Monetary Fund, which has been holding up $1.5 billion in loans until it is satisfied that Russia is making economic progress. In addition, with this new indication of possible economic regression Russia’s ability to attract Western lenders and investors may have been deeply compromised.

Finance Minister Boris Fyodorov is now out of the government. His ideological foes, State Bank Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zaveryukha, remain. Fyodorov, respected by the IMF and Western leaders, favored tight credit policies to combat inflation. His opponents have been responsible for granting huge loans to a large number of inefficient and money-losing state farms and factories, loans that fueled last year’s hyperinflation. Fears about a new inflationary surge led to this week’s frantic public scramble to exchange rubles for dollars.

Fyodorov’s departure follows by a few days that of First Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, the chief draftsman of Yeltsin’s economic reforms. Gaidar’s departure, in turn, came just a few days after Yeltsin assured President Clinton at their meeting in Moscow that Russia would continue resolutely along the path of reform. With reform’s key proponents now banished from government, the credibility of that promise begins to look thin indeed.

It’s of course possible that Yeltsin sees the Cabinet shuffle as only a tactical retreat on the road to reform. But the anti-reformers plainly have other ideas, and for now it’s those ideas that threaten to become ascendant.