Sergei Belyayev, the former head of the Federal Bankruptcy Agency, received praise from both reformers and opponents of the government's privatization program as he took over the State Property Committee Thursday.


"We know Belyayev well from his work at the Federal Bankruptcy Agency, but also from his work in St. Petersburg, where he did an excellent job," said Charles Blitzer, chief economist at the World Bank. Belyayev launched the northern city's privatization program in 1991.


"He's a proven, solid guy, and we look forward to working with him," Blitzer added.


Belyayev's appointment ended weeks of speculation and concern among like-minded reformers and Western experts who were still trembling from the shock inflicted by the former chairman of the committee, Vladimir Polevanov, who was fired last month. During his three-month tenure at the organization known as GKI, Polevanov criticized foreign investment as a threat to national security and called for the renationalization of energy and metal companies, setting the future course of economic reform in jeopardy.


But the nightmare is over now. After the Polevanov aberration, Pyotr Mostovoi stood in as GKI acting director, setting the course of reform as designed by privatization chief Anatoly Chubais back on track.


Belyayev, 41, also considered to be a Chubais man, is expected to continue along the path of economic reform, pushing forward the current and second stage of privatization: the sell-off of machinery, buildings and land.


While Belyayev's appointment drew praise Thursday from reformers and Western experts, opponents to Chubais' privatization program did not immediately signal the move as a defeat.


Although the Duma's privatization committee did not issue an official statement on Belyayev, committee members from across the political spectrum were supportive. Even Vladimir Lisichkin, a member of Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party who has called Chubais' program criminal, expressed tentative support.


"Belyayev has experience and is a more sober person," said Lisichkin, adding that he was not likely to make bold, adventurist moves ‡ la Chubais. "If he has the courage to withstand the influence of Chubais, he will follow a privatization program in the best interests of the people."


Before coming to Moscow in 1993 when he was appointed director of the fledgling Federal Bankruptcy Agency, Belyayev, who is from St. Petersburg, headed that city's property committee. A hydro-electric engineer by training, he was elected to the city council in the first democratic elections in 1990, and was appointed a deputy to Mayor Anatoly Sobchak the following year. Since taking control of federal bankruptcy, Belyayev's agency has been criticized for making limited progress in taking on giant industries operating at a loss, but Russian and Western experts alike Thursday supported Belyayev's efforts.


"When Belyayev came to this post the agency didn't exist -- there was one table and one telephone," said Igor Plotnikov, spokesman for GKI. "He's made great progress creating the necessary apparatus and a foundation on which the agency can operate."


"The bankruptcy business is more complicated" than privatization, Blitzer said, adding that "the agency is making progress getting off the ground. It hasn't had the spectacular success that privatization has had, but that is to be expected given the nature of the beast."


During his tenure as director of the agency, Belyayev is credited most for his work reforming the nation's bankruptcy law, which, in its original form, was ridden with loopholes that brought the agency's work to a near standstill. A month after a presidential decree last June altering the bankruptcy law, the first three state-run companies were declared insolvent. More recently, Belyayev announced that 1,358 companies nationwide were on the verge of bankruptcy.