Putin streamlines cabinet ahead of Russian elections

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin put the finishing touches Tuesday on a surprise pre-election Cabinet reshuffle, replacing his conservative foreign minister and keeping prominent economic liberals as well as most other key figures.\nHe also whittled down the bloated top layer of government by combining some ministries' portfolios and reducing the number of deputy premiers to one.\nThe announcement completes a process that began two weeks ago when Putin dismissed Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and his Cabinet. The timing was seen as an effort to underline Putin's firm hand ahead of Sunday's presidential ballot -- and to inject some excitement into an election campaign dulled by expectations that he will win in a landslide.\nThe most significant Cabinet change announced Tuesday was replacing Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov with Sergey Lavrov, Moscow's longtime U.N. ambassador.\nIvanov, a holdover from Boris Yeltsin's presidency, had been criticized in some quarters for his comparatively hard-line stance on the West and for offering excessive support to Saddam Hussein and other leaders who were considered international pariahs.\nLavrov's appointment "is a confirmation of the pro-Western attitudes of Putin and of his intention to continue this course," said analyst Andrei Kortunov of the Eurasia Foundation.\nDespite Putin's efforts to cultivate ties with the West, relations with the United States and Britain chilled over Russia's opposition to the Iraq war.\n"I think that Putin will try to improve this situation personally and the appointment of Mr. Lavrov could also be very useful because he was very respected at the United Nations," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a foreign policy journal.\nLavrov, 53, a career diplomat who had served as Russia's ambassador to the United Nations since 1994, has been popular among his colleagues and is seen as taking a middle-of-the-road approach, regarded as more of a bureaucrat than an ideologue.\nUnited Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan "has great professional respect for his competence as a diplomat ... and has also learned to appreciate both his wisdom and his wit," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.\nTuesday, Putin reappointed key members of the former Cabinet, including Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Economics Minister German Gref, who have been key figures in steering Russia's course out of the economic collapse of the late 1990s.\nSergei Ivanov was reappointed as defense minister, as was the well-regarded Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu. Putin also formalized the appointment of Rashid Nurgaliyev, who had been acting interior minister since Boris Gryzlov stepped down to lead the pro-Putin United Russia parliamentary faction.\nUnlike the old Cabinet, which had five deputy prime ministers, the new one only has one -- former lawmaker Alexander Zhukov. The new prime minister, former European Union envoy Mikhail Fradkov, was approved last week.\nThe functions of some ministries were rolled into others, reducing the number of Cabinet members to 17 from 30.\nIn televised remarks, Putin voiced hope the reshuffle would help make the Cabinet more efficient and give a boost to economic reforms.\nThe goal of reducing the number of Cabinet posts is "not to make us all feel bloated with our own importance, but to increase personal responsibility of each minister for his job," he said.\nViktor Khristenko, who had served as deputy prime minister in charge of the fuel and energy complex, was named fuel and energy minister, succeeding Igor Yusufov.\nAlexei Gordeyev retained the job of agriculture minister but lost the rank of deputy premier. Putin also named his first deputy chief of staff, Dmitry Kozak, as the Cabinet's chief of staff.