On June 21, the Russian parliament began debate on a motion of no confidence in the Chernomyrdin government. The deputies took this step after Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said he hoped they would go ahead with the debate, Itar-Tass said June 21. Segodnya said June... MORE

The Russian president said June 20 that he approved the actions of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin during the hostage crisis, but said that he had ordered the Security Council to investigate the incident to establish who was responsible for the initial security failure, Itar-Tass said... MORE

A bomb went off in a Vladivostok bus station killing one and injuring three others, Interfax reported June 21. The news service provided no details but many Russians are likely to assume that the Chechens were behind this action. Western Observers Fear Growth of Russian... MORE

In their annual study of anti-semitism throughout the world, the Institute of Jewish Affairs and the American Jewish Community said on June 20 that they were concerned about the growth of anti-semitism in Russia. The groups said that they were more worried by the openly... MORE

During a June 19 television broadcast, Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky threw water at Nizhny Novgorod governor Boris Nemtsov and spit in his face. Zhirinovsky's action came after Nemtsov said that the Russian nationalist was a false patriot who had celebrated Chechen independence with Dzhokhar Dudayev... MORE

The Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations and the Ministry for Fuel and Energy are locked in a battle over who will control the country's oil exports, Kommersant-Daily reported June 20. The former wants the state--and therefore itself--to control them; the latter wants individual firms to... MORE

Russian experts have located a major deposit of platinum in Karelia and the Kola peninsula, Ostankino television reported June 19. The announcement comes at a time of worldwide shortages in the metal as the European Union imposes a requirement for catalytic converters--a major user of... MORE

The Russian government has not sent any of the money that it has promised to Russia's hardpressed farmers, Duma deputy Gennady Kulik told Moscow radio June 20. The budget committee member said he could not square government claims that it had send billions of rubles... MORE

Various Duma members told Izvestiya June 17 that they believed the government's draft budget was based on overly optimistic assumptions: a monthly inflation rate of 1 percent, an end to the country's economic slump, and holding costs down in the rebuilding of Chechnya. Government spokesmen... MORE

Russian state reserves of hard currencies exceeded $6.5 billion, Central Bank currency department head Aleksandr Potemkin told Russian radio June 20. Such an increase in reserves shows that the recent rise in the ruble against foreign currencies--a rise that continued June 20--reflected improved economic fundamentals... MORE