MOSCOW -- With one short, stilted message yesterday, President Boris N. Yeltsin nominated Yevgeny M. Primakov as prime minister and instantly changed all the political rules here.

Unlikely partnerships began to form at the news that Yeltsin had abandoned his first choice, Viktor S. Chernomyrdin.

The fiercest of political enemies stopped quarreling. Communists and liberal democrats competed to praise Primakov. Warnings of fascism and blood in the streets abruptly stopped, and talk turned to reconciliation and compromise.

Peace and concord settled over the fractious State Duma, which promised prompt confirmation and scheduled a vote this afternoon.

If Primakov, who has been foreign minister since 1996, is seen in the U.S. as an unregenerate soldier of the Cold War, Russians find him intelligent, reasonable, a strong defender of national interests and, perhaps most important, politically untainted.

"Good sense has prevailed this time," said Gennady A. Zyuganov, the Communist leader, who had led the opposition to Chernomyrdin, who was rejected twice by the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

And Grigory A. Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal Yabloko faction, called Primakov's nomination "a move toward stabilization."

No one pretended that Primakov, who is 68, was an economic magician, or even that he had any economic experience; they only expected that he could soothe the political strife long enough to permit a constructive dialogue about economic reform.

Dispassionate conversation has been impossible since Aug. 23, when Yeltsin abruptly dismissed the government of Prime Minister Sergei V. Kiriyenko and nominated Chernomyrdin, the 60-year-old bureaucrat who was premier for five years until Yeltsin dismissed him in favor of Kiriyenko in March.

Chernomyrdin quickly became the target of a Duma enraged by the collapse of the economy. They accused him of presiding over the policies and corruption that created the conditions for the fall of the ruble and the destruction of the banking system.

And most of all they objected to his association with Boris A. Berezovsky, one of the half-dozen oligarchs who control much of the economy and who was accused of persuading Yeltsin to install Chernomyrdin to protect the interests of the financial elite. Many deputies have lost all confidence in Yeltsin as well, calling him too weak, ill and misguided to lead the nation.

Their animosity led to a dangerous battle with Yeltsin, who had the authority to dissolve the Duma and call for new elections in three months if his choice as prime minister was rejected a third time. Even the heartiest of optimists saw only trouble ahead if it came to that, and the pessimists predicted bloody protests in the streets and a gradual disintegration of Russia.

"We need a political prime minister now," Alexei I. Podberyozkin, a Duma deputy and strategist for the Communist Party, said in an interview yesterday. "Mr. Primakov is a figure who can consolidate people from different political parties around himself. can lead the country out of the crisis."

At the other end of the political spectrum, Vladimir P. Averchev, a deputy from the liberal Yabloko faction, found almost the same words to describe the nominee.

"He will be a political prime minister," Averchev said. "He's not a person from whom anyone will expect economic miracles. That's why he has a good chance to be a lasting prime minister. His principal role is to provide political stability.

"And political stability is a prerequisite to any kind of economic solution."

Primakov, who had been denying any interest in the job, went about his duties as foreign minister yesterday, gave a scheduled speech to a meeting of European parliamentarians, and was quoted as promising to pursue economic reforms.

Just before Yeltsin sent the nomination to the Duma, Chernomyrdin made an ungraceful retreat.

"I want to make it simple and clear -- I know how to do this job, I know," he said in a speech to the government. He conceded that the Duma would not confirm him, and blamed it on an attempt by the opposition to take over the country in a "creeping coup."

'Followed by blood'

"It would not just be a mistake, it would be a mistake which would be followed by blood," he said.

He said he himself had decided to withdraw his candidacy, and suggested the Primakov nomination to Yeltsin.

Few people believed that. They saw his "withdrawal" as saving face for Yeltsin, who in the past has often risked self-destruction rather than back off in a political confrontation. And it was Yavlinsky, head of the Yabloko faction, who had suggested Primakov in a Duma speech opposing Chernomyrdin on Monday.

Dmitri Trenin, deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, predicted Primakov will have a hands-off policy toward the economy and appoint experts to run it. Though Primakov has a degree in economics, he has had no practical experience in it.

His broad appeal -- and distance from the oligarchs -- are great assets, Trenin said.

As if to underscore the breadth of his appeal, and the extent of his moderation, only one politician spoke out against him yesterday. That was Vladimir P. Zhirinovsky, the professionally contrary ultranationalist, who declared Primakov a puppet of the Americans.

Primakov has stayed away from the oligarchs, who have not been interested in foreign policy or the foreign intelligence service he previously ran.

'He's not greedy'

"He's been very careful not to involve himself with those guys," Trenin said. "And I don't think he's corrupt. I think in this sense he's a Soviet type. He would enjoy amenities and privileges, but he's not greedy."

Many American politicians and commentators are suspicious of Primakov, who is personally acquainted with Saddam Hussein and has oftened intervened in the Middle East. His critics call it meddling -- as, for example, his efforts last year to win concessions for Iraq in the conflict with U.N. weapons inspectors. And he has aggressively pursued Russia's interests, lobbying vigorously but ultimately unsuccessfully against the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Early in his career, he was a Middle East correspondent for Pravda, but it was a cover for work as a spy. In general, Russians don't hold his KGB career against him, because he worked outside of the country in counterintelligence, rather than internally, spying on his countrymen.

Official Washington had kind words for him yesterday.

"The United States government knows and respects Foreign Minister Primakov," said Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary. "We would expect to have a good and close working relationship with Prime Minister Primakov."

Averchev said that early on Primakov "played some games with Arab regimes," but went on to develop a close relationship with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Primakov is a moderate, he said, and skeptics should not fear him.

Much will depend on the kind of Cabinet he appoints. His preferences were unclear yesterday. Some speculated he would appoint a Communist and former head of state planning in the Soviet era to his top economic post. Others argued that Yavlinsky, a liberal reformer, was the favorite.

On one thing, nearly everyone agreed. The political landscape was transformed.

The Duma had emerged, for the first time, as a serious political force as it prevailed over the willful Yeltsin. In one stroke, a disparate opposition had been swept into the government camp. And at the very last moment, Russia had taken a step back from destruction, instead of plunging into it headlong.

Pub Date: 9/11/98