Word: duma
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Duma, the lower body of the Russian Parliament, voted nearly unanimously (286-1) to prohibit the use of the army except in case of foreign invasion, and called for the government to forge animmediate ceasefire in Chechnya"without any preconditions."TIME Moscow correspondent Yuri Zarakhovichsays that the move actually will have very little effect on government policy. "It's a purely symbolic act," he says. "But it's a moral blow to theprestige of Yeltsin. In practical terms, if the president doesn't like it he can just dissolve the parliament...
Little surprise then that the IMF is still hesitating. The Duma's preliminary approval of a budget with a deficit of $18 billion--7.7% of GDP--exceeds the maximum acceptable to the IMF as a condition for its loans. The imf also wants changes in oil policy to bring about more realistic domestic-energy pricing, but continues to be thwarted by a government leery of any moves that will burden industry and force unemployment to rise. Even the central bank is failing to toe the line. It had promised to stop fueling inflation by lending indiscriminately to the government...
While the Kremlin gave no immediate response, Deputies in the Duma, or lower house of parliament, blasted the initial government decision to send troops to Chechnya. "The country is in crisis," said one, reformer Boris Fyodorov, joining a unanimous call for a special commission to probe the war. Still, the Deputies rejected a limit on President BorisYeltsin's power to run the military offensive, and -- in a slap at widely criticized Defense Minister Pavel Grachev -- ordered the army's general staff to report directly to Yeltsin...
Simultaneous translations were used in each session. All major parties of the lower house of the parliament, the 450-member State Duma, were represented, including Russia's Choice, which supports President Boris Yeltsin...
Edwards told Duma members that if they wanted to see an efficient government, they came to the wrong country. He discussed the constitutional system of checks and balances and the tortuous process of passing legislation...