RUSSIA - Profile - Boris Nemtsov

Aged 38, is a Jewish nephew of President Yeltsin's wife and PM Chernomyrdin once worked under his father in one of the Soviet industrial ministries. A physicist drawn into politics by his opposition to a nuclear power plant, he won a seat in the last Soviet parliament as an opponent of Communism. He stood with Yeltsin against the Communist coup plotters in Aug. 1991. Yeltsin later made him governor of Nizhny Novgorod. But he followed the economic policies of Yavlinsky rather than those of Chubais and gained the confidence of the World Bank which helped him turn his region into a reform centre. Yeltsin brought him to Moscow in March 1997 and made him 1st deputy PM, to work alongside Chubais who was also 1st deputy PM. Later he was made in charge of the monopolies, including Gazprom and pipeline operator Transneft, of the energy ministry, and of an inter-ministerial commission for the PSAs. But in early 1998 PM Chernomyrdin ceased his duties as supervisor of the energy sector, having given the energy ministry to his protege Kiriyenko. It was Nemtsov who first recommended Kiriyenko to Kremlin chief of staff Yumashev for the post of PM in March 1998.

Nemtsov's future is uncertain as he has said he would not serve under Chernomyrdin and the latter says he does not need him. When he was 1st deputy PM, Nemtsov made several power brokers his adversaries, including Chubais' arch-rival Berezovsky who once warned the Jewish reformer not to run for president because he had "a purely genetic problem". But Nemtsov shrugged this off and US Jewish journalist William Safire on July 31, 1998 quoted him as saying in his White House office, "they look at your biography. But after you've been on TV a hundred times, they forget". Sources say the chances of Nemtsov being elected as president are nil.