1999 in Russia

On July 25, 1998, the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, was appointed director of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation .

Since March 26, 1999, he simultaneously took the post of Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation .

At this time, as the chairman of the Russian government, a real personnel leapfrog continued - in 1998, Viktor Chernomyrdin was replaced by Sergey Kirienko , and that of Yevgeny Primakov . It was in the spring of 1999 that the whole face of President Boris Yeltsin was shown on television throughout the country, when he said at the next meeting with his closest subordinates: “They didn’t sit down!” And paused until they switched places.

In May 1999, the State Duma unsuccessfully tried to raise the question of Yeltsin’s dismissal from office (the five charges formulated by the impeachment initiators mainly related to Yeltsin’s actions during his first term). In the wake of rumors that Yevgeny Primakov could run for the presidential election in 2000, Yeltsin on May 12, dismissed the Primakov’s government before voting on impeachment, after which, with the consent of the State Duma, he appointed Sergei Stepashin as chairman of the government ^[1] .

Meanwhile, the conflict in separatist Chechnya is beginning to determine the situation in Russia. In summer, the situation on the administrative border of Chechnya, Dagestan and the Stavropol Territory is exacerbated. Chechnya attacks the outposts of the internal troops of the Russian Federation. ^[2]

In early August, Dagestani Wahhabis in the Tsumadinsky district announce the introduction of Sharia rule in the republic. Armed clashes begin. On August 7, from the Chechen side, detachments of Chechen militants under the general command of Basayev and Khattab are sent to help the rebels.

In this situation, Yeltsin again changes the head of the government - instead of Sergei Stepashin on August 9, 1999, an official little known to the general public was appointed interim chairman of the Russian government - he worked for only a year as director of the FSB and did not even receive the general rank of Vladimir Putin. On the same day, in his televised address, B. N. Yeltsin called him his successor - a man who, in his opinion, “is able to consolidate society, relying on the broadest political forces, to ensure the continuation of reforms in Russia. He will be able to rally around himself those who, in the new 21st century, will have to renew great Russia ... I am sure of it. But I want everyone to be sure of it, too, who in July 2000 will come to the polls and make their choice. ” ^[3] .

Since August 16, 1999, Putin has been the prime minister.

Decisive actions of the government towards the Chechen separatists were supported in Russia, which led to an increase in Putin's popularity ^[4] .

On October 10, Aslan Maskhadov removed Akhmat Kadyrov from the post of supreme mufti of Chechnya, declaring him "the enemy of the Chechen people", which is "subject to destruction."

December 19 held regular elections to the State Duma . The 5% barrier was overcome by 6 electoral lists:

• Communist Party of the Russian Federation - 90 deputies in the faction of the same name and 39 in the Agrarian and Industrial Deputy Group,
• “ Unity ” - 82 in the faction of the same name and 59 in the deputy group “People’s Deputy”,
• Fatherland - All of Russia - 45 in the faction of the same name and 41 in the deputy group "Regions of Russia",
• Union of Right Forces - 32,
• " Apple " - 21,
• LDPR - 17.

On December 31, as a result of the voluntary resignation of President of Russia Boris Yeltsin , who did not wait for the next presidential election scheduled for spring 2000 , Putin becomes the acting president of the Russian Federation. On the same day, symbols of presidential power were handed over to Putin, including the “ nuclear suitcase ”.

Immediately after Yeltsin’s resignation, Putin made a New Year’s appeal to Russian citizens and on the same day signed a decree guaranteeing Yeltsin protection from prosecution, as well as significant material benefits for him and his family ^[5] .

Attempts to Combat NATO's Aggression Against Yugoslavia

On March 24, 1999 , NATO Secretary General Solana ordered US General Wesley Clark, commander of NATO forces in Europe, to launch a war against Yugoslavia. Belgrade , Pristina , Uzice , Novi Sad , Kragujevac , Pancevo , Podgorica and others were attacked by air

At that moment, Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was on an official visit to the United States. Already over the Atlantic, he learned about the beginning of the bombing and decided to cancel the visit, ordered to turn over the ocean and returned to Moscow.

On April 14, Yeltsin appointed Chernomyrdin his special representative for Yugoslavia.

CFE Adaptation Agreement

On November 19, at the Istanbul Istanbul Summit, an Agreement on the Adaptation of the CFE Treaty was signed, the need for which was caused by a military imbalance that arose due to the expansion of NATO at the expense of the former ATS countries and post-Soviet states.

This document introduced national and territorial limits instead of the block quota system (the latter imply the deployment of military equipment of other countries on the territory of states, but not higher than the agreed level). The quota of Russia was 6350 tanks, 11280 armored vehicles, 6315 artillery systems, 3416 aircraft and 855 helicopters. At the same time, the flank quotas of the Russian Federation (in the north-west of the European part of Russia and in the North Caucasus ) were increased to 1300 tanks, 2140 armored vehicles and 1680 artillery systems.

The total NATO quota at the time of signing the document was 19096 tanks, 31787 armored vehicles, 19529 artillery systems, 7273 aircraft and 2282 helicopters.

The agreement was signed by 30 states, but it was ratified only by Belarus , Kazakhstan , Russia and Ukraine and never entered into force.

February

• On February 1, the Prosecutor General of Russia, Yuri Skuratov, submitted his resignation to the President of Russia ^[6] . The next day, the president raised the issue of Skuratov’s resignation before the Federation Council ^[7] .

March

• On March 17, the Federation Council rejected the proposal of the President of Russia to resign Attorney General Yuri Skuratov ^[7] . Skuratov himself at the meeting said that he was forced to write a statement. In the evening, shots were shown on RTR in which “a person similar to the attorney general” was filmed in a society of prostitutes.
• March 19 there was an explosion in the Central market of Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia), 52 people were killed, 168 injured. Subsequently, the investigation and the court established the involvement of the Chechen separatists in the attack (the organizer was Arbi Baraev ).
• On March 24, Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, learning about the bombing of the Yugoslav cities by NATO forces during a flight over the Atlantic Ocean, canceled his visit to Washington and instructed to deploy the plane back to Moscow (the operation was called “ Primakov ’s Loop ”).
• On March 26, 1999, a major, a pilot of the MiG-29 fighter of the 127th fighter squadron Vityaz Zoran Radosavlevich, a native of Pristina , died in a battle with NATO aircraft.

April

• April 21 - The State Duma settled the procedural issues of holding an impeachment vote for the President ^[8] .
• April 25 - the first direct elections of the head of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic were held. The elections did not reveal the winner, a second vote was appointed on the candidatures of Stanislav Derev and Vladimir Semenov.
• April 27 - Boris Yeltsin made personnel changes in the Government of Russia, replacing Vadim Gustov, First Deputy Prime Minister with Sergei Stepashin ^[9]

May

• May 12 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired the government of Yevgeny Primakov, and appointed acting Chairman of the Government Sergey Stepashin ^[10] .
• May 15 - A roll-call vote was held in the State Duma to dismiss Boris Yeltsin from the presidency on five charges. The majority of 300 votes necessary to start the procedure has not been achieved on any of the five points. The largest number of votes - 284 - received the accusation of the war in Chechnya .
• May 16 - a repeat vote was held on the elections of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, General Vladimir Semenov confidently won the election
• May 19 - The State Duma voted to approve Sergei Stepashin as chairman of the Government of Russia; on the same day, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree on his appointment ^[11] .
• May 30 - The elections of the Governor of the Belgoro region took place. The current governor Yevgeny Savchenko reaffirmed his credentials, and one of the leading Russian politicians and LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky took only third place.

June

• June 5 - At the Stade de France stadium in Paris, the Russian national football team defeated the French national team (at that time the current world champions) as part of the qualifying tournament for Euro 2000 . The game has become historic for the Russian team,

August

• On August 7, militants from Chechnya launched an invasion of Dagestan ; a number of villages in the Botlikh region were captured. The fighting continued until August 23, when the gangs returned to Chechnya.
• On August 9, Russian President Boris Yeltsin announced the resignation of the government of Sergei Stepashin and appointed acting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin . In his address, Yeltsin declared Putin, then little known to the general public, his successor.
• On August 9, the President of Russia signed a decree calling for the election of deputies of the State Duma of the third convocation on December 19 ^[12] . After the official publication of the decree on August 10, the election campaign began .
• On August 16, Vladimir Putin was confirmed as Chairman of the Government of Russia.
• On August 29, the constituent congress of the electoral bloc Fatherland-All Russia was held .
• On August 29, an operation began to destroy the Wahhabi outpost in the villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi ( Kadar zone , Dagestan).
• On August 29, the elections of the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region were held. Voting in the first round did not reveal the winner; a second vote was nominated on the candidatures of Eduard Rossel and Alexander Burkov.
• On August 31 in Moscow, in the Okhotny Ryad shopping center near Manezhnaya Square, an explosion occurred , one person was killed and forty were injured.

September

• On September 4, at 21 hours 45 minutes, a GAZ-52 truck was blown up in the Dagestan city of Buinaksk near a six-story residential building on Levanevsky Street. As a result of the explosion, two entrances of a residential building were destroyed, 64 people were killed, 146 people were injured. The second ZIL-130 truck was neutralized by police officers near the hospital two hours after the first explosion.
• September 5 - a new invasion of Dagestan from the territory of Chechnya, the Novolaksky district of Dagestan was attacked
• On September 5, elections were held for governors of the Novgorod and Omsk regions, governors Mikhail Prusak and Leonid Polezhaev retained their posts.
• On September 7, Chechen fighters were stopped by federal forces on the territory of Dagestan, 5 kilometers from Khasavyurt
• September 8 at 23 hours 58 minutes in the basement of a 9-story residential on Guryanova Street (Pechatniki District) in the south-east of Moscow, an explosion occurred, as a result of which one section of the building was destroyed. According to official figures, the explosion killed 100 people, injured 690 people.
• On September 12, in the Sverdlovsk Region, a second vote was taken on the election of the governor, Eduard Rossel confirmed his authority.
• On September 13, at 5 a.m., an explosion occurred in an 8-story brick residential building on Kashirskoye Shosse in Moscow, the house was completely destroyed, 124 people were killed, 9 people were injured. Explosive supplies were found on the same day in the Maryino area sufficient to destroy several more residential buildings.
• On September 14, federal forces regained control of the territory of Dagestan .
• On September 16, in the city of Volgodonsk, Rostov Region, near a nine-story residential building, a GAZ-53 truck with ammunition detonated along the Oktyabrsky Highway, the front part of the house was destroyed from the blast wave, 37 nearby houses were damaged. 19 dead, another 88 injured.
• September 18 - Russian troops block the Chechen border from Dagestan, the Stavropol Territory, North Ossetia and Ingushetia.
• On September 19, elections were held for the governors of the Leningrad and Tomsk Regions. In the Leningrad Region, Valery Serdyukov , who had been acting as governor for a long time, defeated ex-governor Vadim Gustov , and in the Tomsk region, governor Viktor Kress confirmed his authority.
• On September 22, Ryazan residents noticed people carrying sugar bags from a passenger car to the basement. At first, the presence of explosives in the bags was announced, and then exercises were announced. On the same day in Chechnya, an air strike was struck at the airport in Grozny.
• September 23 - Russian aviation began bombing the capital of Chechnya and its environs. On the same day, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, while in Astana and answering journalists' questions, publicly stated that "we will pursue terrorists wherever they are ..." .
• September 24, Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu announced the creation, with the support of the heads of many regions, of the electoral bloc " Interregional Movement" Unity " (" Bear ")
• September 30 - armored units of the Russian army from the Stavropol Territory and Dagestan entered the territory of the Naursky and Shelkovsky regions of Chechnya.

October

• October 3 - the constituent congress of the Unity (Bear) election bloc began ^[13] .
• October 6 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Federal Law "On General Principles for the Organization of Legislative (Representative) and Executive Bodies of State Power of the Subjects of the Russian Federation", which, in particular, secures the election of senior officials of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation (presidents, governors, heads of administrations and etc.) ^[14]
• October 18 - Russian troops crossed the Terek and continued their offensive on the territory of Chechnya ^[15] .

November

• November 11 - field commanders, the Yamadayev brothers and the Mufti of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, surrendered to the federal forces without a fight the second largest city of Chechnya, Gudermes

December

• December 7 - federal troops occupied the third largest city of Chechnya Argun .
• On December 19, elections to the State Duma of the third convocation were held . 66840603 voters (61.85 percent) participated in the elections. According to the election results, the lists of candidates of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (24.27% - 67 seats), the Unity (Bear) Interregional Movement (23.32% - 64 seats), the Fatherland Bloc - All Russia (13.33% - 37 seats), Union of Right Forces (8.52% - 24 seats), Zhirinovsky Bloc (5.98% - 17 seats), Yabloko (5.93% - 16 seats) ^[16] .
• On December 19, simultaneously with the elections to the State Duma, elections were held for the mayor of Moscow, governors of the Primorsky Territory, Vologda, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Tambov, Tver, Yaroslavl Regions. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov , Governor of Primorsky Territory Yevgeny Nazdratenko , Governor of the Vologda Oblast Vyacheslav Pozgalyov and Governor of the Yaroslavl Oblast Anatoly Lisitsyn retained their posts, re-voting was appointed in other regions (second round).
• On December 26, federal forces launched an assault on Grozny .
• On December 26, a second vote took place on the elections of the Orenburg and Tambov regions, which ended in failure for the current governors. In the Orenburg region, the deputy - agrarian Alexei Chernyshev won, in the Tambov region - the former governor - appointee Oleg Betin .
• December 31, the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin at 12 o’clock in a televised address to the people announced his resignation and signed the corresponding decree ^[17] . A few hours before his resignation, he signed federal laws on the election of the President and on the federal budget for 2000. The exercise of the powers of the President of Russia is entrusted to the Chairman of the Government of Russia, Vladimir Putin. On the same day already in quality and. about. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on guarantees to the president, who ceased to exercise his powers. ^[18]

1. ↑ Reference: Government of the Russian Federation since 1992 // GZT.ru , September 12, 2007
2. ↑ Monitoring the event-information situation of the Second Chechen war
3. ↑ GAZETA.RU: “Television of Yeltsin: full text”
4. ↑ The Government of V. Putin (opinion polls) // POF database
5. ↑ Yeltsin was guaranteed immunity and everything else Archived on September 7, 2004. // Lenta.ru , December 31, 1999
6. ↑ The Prosecutor General of Russia, Yuri Skuratov, has filed a resignation letter .. News. The first channel (Russian) . Date of appeal October 29, 2018.
7. ↑ ^{1 2} Favorites: Man similar to the Prosecutor General (inaccessible link)
8. ↑ Resolution of the State Duma of April 21, 1999 “On Amendments and Additions to the Rules of Procedure of the State Duma” / Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation, 1999, No. 17, Art. 2111
9. ↑ Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 27, 1999 No. 529 “On V. Gustov,” No. 530 “On the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation - Minister of the Interior of the Russian Federation” / Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation, No. 18, Art. 2290, 2291.
10. ↑ Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 05/12/1999 No. 580 // Russian newspaper, 1999, May 12.
11. ↑ Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 05.19.1999 No. 611 // Meeting of the legislation of the Russian Federation, 1999, No. 21, Art. 2583. </
12. ↑ Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 09.09.1999 N 1014 // Russian newspaper, 1999, August 10
13. ↑ [ http://www.panorama.ru/works/vybory/party/edinstvo.html The full name "Interregional movement" Unity "Leader - S. Shoigu] (neopr.) . Www.panorama.ru. Date of appeal October 29 2018.
14. ↑ Russian Newspaper, 1999, October 19.
15. ↑ The exit of Russian troops to the Terek border is only the first stage of the anti-terrorist operation (Russian) . Radio Liberty. Date of appeal October 29, 2018.
16. ↑ Protocol of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation of December 29, 1999 “ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF DEPUTY MANDATES BETWEEN ELECTION UNIONS, ELECTION BLOCKS AND ON THE RESULTS OF ELECTIONS BY THE FEDERAL ELECTION CENTER 1999” //
17. ↑ The resignation of the first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin 10 years ago, we recall with his former press secretary Vyacheslav Kostikov and philosopher Igor Chubais (Russian) . Radio Liberty. Date of appeal October 29, 2018.
18. ↑ See the Federal Law “On the Federal Budget for 2000”; Federal Law “On the Election of the President of the Russian Federation”; Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On the exercise of the powers of the President of the Russian Federation”; Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On guarantees to the President of the Russian Federation, who has ceased to exercise his powers, and to members of his family” // Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 2000, January 5.

• 2005 in Russia
• 2008 in Russia
• The interwar crisis in Chechnya
• The invasion of militants in the Republic of Dagestan (1999)
• Explosions of residential buildings (1999)
• Second Chechen War
• Government of E.M. Primakov (1998-1999)
• Government of S.V. Stepashin (1999)
• The Government of V.V. Putin (1999-2000)
• State Duma Elections (1999)

• The main trends of internal political development in the second half of 1999 // Research Institute of Social Systems of Moscow State University