| In his speech to Duma deputies on 18 June, Yabloko leader
Grigory Yavlinsky said his faction
supported the no-confidence motion "not because the government is
guilty of something, but because it has done nothing to change the situation,"
gzt.ru and NTV reported. He criticized the government for not carrying
out reforms in the financial sector, state administration, taxation, and
the so-called natural monopolies. He said the government is staffed with
"temporary people" who are sitting on their bank accounts just
waiting to leave the country. "Can you imagine what they are putting
in their coffers in the meantime?" Yavlinsky asked. Communist Party
leader Gennadi Zyuganov told deputies that the no-confidence motion was
necessary to "save the country from disaster," gzt.ru reported
on 18 June. He charged that the country produces almost nothing domestically
and that it exports natural resources worth $100 billion annually for which
it receives only 2,000 rubles ($65) a month per capita -- about $10 billion
per year. Zyuganov also emphasized the country's demographic crisis, saying
that Russia has the lowest life expectancy in Europe and that the suicide
rate has grown by 80 percent over the last decade.
See also:
No-Confidence
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Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, June 19, 2003
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