Legislators Press Yeltsin over Premier

Source: Financial Times (London)
Date: April 1, 1998

by Chrystia Freeland

Russia's leftwing-dominated parliament yesterday stepped up its game of brinkmanship with the Kremlin, threatening to block the nomination of Sergei Kiriyenko as prime minister unless the government agreed to consult it.

Parliamentary leaders decided that they would debate a controversial resolution today demanding that Boris Yeltsin meet the legislature's chiefs to discuss Mr Kiriyenko, the inexperienced 35-year-old technocrat whom the president has named as head of the new government.

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Mr Kiriyenko, whose nomination last week came as a surprise, is expected today to continue lobbying the parliamentary factions. His task could be complicated by revelations in the Russian media that he attended seminars of the Scientology religious group. Over the past few days, Russian newspapers have also dwelt upon Mr Kiriyenko's admission that his father is Jewish.

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