EX-FINANCE MINISTER URGES YELTSIN TO NAME NEW BANK CHIEF.

BorisFedorov, chairman of the Duma subcommittee on monetary policyand a former finance minister, has urged Boris Yeltsin to namea new director of the Russian Central Bank, Kommersant-Dailyreported August 18. He suggested two possible candidates:Dmitri Tulin, the Russian IMF director, and Andrei Kazmin, thedeputy finance minister. Fedorov said that the current situationwithout a confirmed director of the bank "harms the countryand puts a brake on financial stabilization." Meanwhile,the interior ministry told Moscow radio August 21 that it hadlaunched a criminal investigation of corruption in the CentralBank.

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