Word: ryzhkov
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Government leaders in democracies are accustomed to having their appointments challenged in the legislative branch, but the experience was a shock for Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov. The country's new 542-member Supreme Soviet rejected six of Ryzhkov's 69 nominees to ministerial-level jobs. The - casualties included Culture Minister Vasili Zakharov and Vladimir Gribov, designated head of the central bank...
Most of the nominees were rejected on the grounds that they lacked qualifications. Last week Ryzhkov, who had vowed to fight for his nominees, thought better of it. "I could not see any substantial proof that would enable me to defend them," he admitted. "They simply did not meet demands in one area or another...
...constitutional provision giving the Communist Party the "leading role" in Soviet political life, while the Soviet leader accused the Nobel Peace laureate of trying to "belittle" the new parliament's achievements. There were also painful disclosures about the dreadful state of the Soviet economy. Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov admitted that some 40 million Soviets, or 13% of the population, live below the poverty level, that the Afghanistan war had cost about $70 billion and that the country's foreign-trade deficit this year will reach $52 billion. (The U.S. foreign-trade deficit last year was $119.8 billion.) In an attack...
Black smoke wafted from the wreckage as a somber-faced Gorbachev, along with Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov, was shown speaking to people at the scene...
...swords-into-plowshares effort has produced some quirky situations. For example, the Ministry for Medium-Machine Building, which is responsible for building nuclear weapons, has been given the job of modernizing the dairy industry. Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov disclosed last month that the Moscow Aviation Factory will soon produce pasta...