RUSSIA - Mar. 9 - New Cabinet.

Pres. Putin unveils a sharply streamlined cabinet under new PM Fradkov. (This reinforces the influence of the liberal economic reformers in the new government while highlighting Putin's own firm grip on decision-making. The structure, modelled on the operation of Western governments, aims to separate political decision-making from implementation and control, and is the cornerstone of Putin's civil service reforms. It also gives the Kremlin greater leverage in driving through its policies. The appointments appear to hold in check the influence in the most senior positions of more hardline individuals from the security and law enforcement agencies, who remain a powerful force within the Putin administration).

Putin says on TV: "This is the team which after the (Mar. 14 presidential) election will immediately and assuredly take up the job of strengthening the country and improving the quality of life of our citizens".

(The Moscow stock market rose modestly on the news, with investors welcoming signs the new administration would push ahead with promised structural reforms, reduction of red-tape and tax simplifications. However, Roland Nash, chief strategist at Renaissance Capital, a Moscow-based brokerage, says: "The Kremlin created a super-efficient machine for implementing its own policies, which have ambiguous implications for Russia. We are likely to see further market reforms and equally further centralisation of power in Putin's hands".

(A Leader of Russia's weakened liberal political movement, Boris Nemtsov, cautiously welcomed the government reforms but warned that the absence of checks and balances undermined its likely effectiveness. He said: "The lack of basic democratic institutions such as political opposition and civic control over the workings of the government makes any administrative reform ineffective. There is nobody who is able to objectively and openly assess the success or failure of this government".

(Putin reduced the number of ministers from 30 to 17, downgraded many ministries to subordinate agencies, and cut the number of deputy prime ministers from 6 to 1, whom he confirmed as Alexander Zhukov, the liberal politician from the dominant United Russia Party.

(Putin transferred Dmitry Kozak, his long-standing colleague and campaign manager, out of the Kremlin to oversee the government as head of the administration with a ministerial status, ranked 3rd after Fradkov and Zhukov.

(The liberal-oriented Alexei Kudrin and Viktor Khristenko were formally demoted from deputy prime ministers. But they retained cabinet positions. Kudrin now is in charge of the ministry of finance. Khristenko is in charge of an enlarged ministry of industry and energy. German Gref retained his job as head of the ministry of economic development and trade.

(Sergei Lavrov, Russia's ambassador to the UN who helped spearhead Moscow's resistance to the US-led war in Iraq last year, was appointed as foreign minister. It represents a second appointment after that of Fradkov himself, the former EU envoy, as someone with Western experience who has firmly defended Russia's interests abroad.

(Putin's close ally and former colleague in the KGB security police, Sergei Ivanov, was retained in his job as defence minister, in a sign of the importance the Kremlin attaches to continued military reform).