Mikhail Fradkov

His pledge to streamline bloated government structures was in response to calls for a more effective administration by President Vladimir Putin, who nominated him March 1 and is cruising toward a second four-year term March 14.

Fradkov, 53, a little-known former tax police chief and trade minister, has been Russia's envoy to the European Union in Brussels for the past year.

Observers say that Putin, whose approval ratings are close to 80 percent, may have wanted his Feb. 24 dismissal of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and the Cabinet to inject life into the moribund presidential campaign and avoid an embarrassingly low voter turnout at the polls.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 13, 2003
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