Putin Changes Russia's Government Before Elections

Putin fired Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and appointed his deputy, Viktor Khristenko, 46, as acting prime minister, marking the end of the second-longest-serving government since the Soviet Union fell in 1991. Putin, 51, said he made the change in order to emphasize his policies before elections set for March 14. Putin, who in 1999 became the youngest Russian leader since Tsar Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894, may win about 80 percent of the vote, according to a poll conducted by the Moscow- based All Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion from Feb. 13 to Feb. 16. The survey of 1,600 people in 100 cities had a margin of error of 3.4 percent. Under the constitution, Putin must appoint a new government after the election. Today's change ``is dictated by the wish to again highlight my position on the question of what will be the country's course of development after March 14,'' Putin said. ``I consider it right at this time not to wait for the end of the electoral campaign.'' The dismissal may indicate Putin is determined to rid the government of officials linked to former President Boris Yeltsin, who himself overhauled the cabinet four times in the 17 months through August 1998. The prime minister is one of the three most powerful posts in Russia. Last October, Putin sacked his chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, a Yeltsin appointee. That position, also among the top three, was filled by Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin ally from the president's hometown of St. Petersburg.