SIA'S prime minister Yegor Gaidar, architect of President Boris Yeltsin's economic reforms, was ousted yesterday.

He was considered one of the major architects of Baroda's reforms.

Mr. Zhao, an architect of China's economic reforms in the 1980's, openly defied the party he once led when he opposed the use of force against democracy protesters in 1989.

On Feb. 20 the president of the Central Bank, Pedro Tinoco, one of the architects of the government's economic reforms, resigned.

Mr. Gaidar, who is chief architect of Russia's economic reforms, said he would put an emphasis on increasing oil and agricultural production.

Mr. Gaidar, who was the architect of Mr. Yeltsin's early, radical economic reforms, did poorly in the election.

A leading critic of China's bureaucracy, Zhu Rongji has been the architect of China's financial reforms since coming to power in 1993.

Among other appointments, Heizo Takenaka, 54, the architect of Mr. Koizumi's economic and structural reforms, was selected as internal affairs minister.

Djankov has worked closely with Kakha Bendukidze, the main architect of Georgia's economic reforms.

Was this a move to protect Mr. Gaidar, the architect of Russia's pro-market reforms, from the wrath of the hard-line majority?