The Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, sent a strong warning to radical reformers with hints of a possible cabinet reshuffle.

President Yeltsin, showing no trace of his recent illness, also made more conciliatory gestures towards the opposition.

In a radio address summing up the year, he said the radicals had forgotten the needs and feelings of ordinary people in their rush for the market.

President Yeltsin mentioned no names but his remarks will be noted in the camp of beleaguered First Deputy Prime Minister, Anatoly Chubais, an avid marketeer overseeing economic reforms.

"Today it has become clear for most people there have been few [economic] achievements. We will correct mistakes and draw the necessary conclusions," he said, echoing a statement he made when he reshuffled the government in November.

"[Communist] Party slogans have been replaced by macroeconomic ones. They first proclaimed 'Privatisation at any cost' and later 'Let's squeeze the dollar into a currency corridor'."

Threat to Chubais

Mr Chubais has spearheaded Russia's ambitious privatisation campaign since reforms started in 1992. When he was brought back into the cabinet last March as First Deputy Premier and Finance Minister, he was responsible for monetary policy and macroeconomic reforms.

The 42-year-old lost his finance ministry portfolio last month after he and some of his allies accepted fees of $90,000 each for a book which has not been yet published.

Mr Chubais, widely respected in the West, was also instrumental in talks over the release of fresh funds to Russia by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Now that the debts, at least those of the federal budget, have almost all been paid and the international lending institutions are ready to disburse the credits, President Yeltsin might think the political inconvenience of keeping Mr Chubais is too great. His place might be taken, according to some analysts, by the reformist governor of the Saratov region, Dmitry Ayatskov.

The opposition has been demanding Mr Chubais's resignation for months, and the new conciliatory image President Yeltsin has adopted since his major heart surgery in November 1996 involves dialogue with opponents.

"I have asked the Russians to turn this year into a year of reconciliation and accord," President Yeltsin said. "And I am doing it myself, even when I have to force myself and seek agreement with the once 'irreconcilable opposition'."

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