Flowers were exchanged and a few tears shed Monday at the Culture Ministry where Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Sysuyev presented the new minister, Natalya Dementyeva, and thanked the outgoing government veteran, Yevgeny Sidorov. ""The change of ministers is dictated by the times,"" said Sysuyev. ""We believe that today new impulses are needed."" Sysuyev, who is in charge of the social sector in the Cabinet, said the role of culture as a basis of Russian statehood should be revived. Last week President Boris Yeltsin signed decrees replacing Sidorov as culture minister and instituting a state television channel called Culture. The moves are being billed as a change in government policy, putting more emphasis on the demands of Russian intellectuals to increase funding and give more prominence to culture on the government's agenda. Dementyeva she could not speak about her plans in any detail until she gets acquainted with the ministry. ""The scale of the work does not frighten me,"" she said.

President Boris Yeltsin's abrupt dismissal of his man on military reform caught almost everyone off guard -- including the man he named to take over -- but Kremlin watchers said Monday it does not signal a reversal in plans to overhaul the armed forces.

NATO has seized a transmitter run by backers of war-crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic to punish them for broadcasting calls for violence against foreign organizations in Bosnia, officials said Monday.