President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Sunday named former KGB general Boris Pugo as Interior Minister after relieving Vadim Bakatin of the job in a possible shakeup of the country's law and order ministry. Gorbachev ``released Vadim Bakatin from the duties of the Soviet interior minister in connection with his transition to another job,'' the state news agency Tass reported. Bakatin's replacement must be approved by the Supreme Soviet legislature, the report said. The report did not say whether the 53-year-old Bakatin was being promoted or punished. Officials have said there has been a sharp rise in economic and violent crime stemming from the nation's political crisis. Gorbachev has been threatening a crackdown for more than a month. He has also said that he planned drastic changes in the government structure, especially the Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov. The prime minister is widely blamed for the failure of the government's economic reforms. Pugo, 53, was first secretary of the Communist Party in the Baltic republic of Latvia in 1984-88, but was forced out due to the growing independence movement there. Pugo becomes the most prominent Baltic native in a Communist Party and government leadership that is dominated by Russians. He is not considered popular in Latvia, however, because he was deputy chief and chief of the KGB in Latvia from 1977-84, and has resisted the Baltic drive for independence. The three Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have declared independence this year, but Gorbachev has refused to allow them to leave. Pugo, chairman of the Communist Party's Control Committee since 1988 and strong Gorbachev supporter, was appointed to take Bakatin's place by presidential decree, Tass reported. He was named a non-voting member of the Communist Party Politburo in September 1989, but was dropped last July during reforms that drastically reduced the power of the party.
