Russia launches its first bureaucrat into space as Yury Baturin heads for the Mir space station. Doctors warn that crowded and unsanitary Russian prisons have become a fertile breeding ground for a new killer strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis which will place an enormous burden on the country's already overstrained health resources unless the government acts quickly. Russia effectively devalues the ruble by as much as 30 percent, announces a 90-day moratorium on some foreign debt, and freezes GKO treasury bills. Yeltsin dismisses his top economic advisor Aleksander Livshits following the de facto devaluation of the Russian ruble. Russia's stock market continues its headlong dive.
Prices begin to rise in Moscow shops.
Russia's central bank appeals for calm and offers 100 percent guarantees for individuals' deposits to try to protect the banking system from collapse. Yeltsin sacks the government of Sergei Kiriyenko after four months, and summons former prime minister Chernomyrdin back. Deputy Prime Minister Nemtsov resigns, saying he will not hold a post in the next government. The Duma and premier-nominee Chernomyrdin discuss a possible coalition government. The ruble plunges more than 40 percent against the German mark and the central bank declares it can no longer afford to continue major intervention to support the currency.