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| 1998, March 23 |
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| Pres. Boris Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and replaced him with the little-known Sergei Kiriyenko. The Russian government became increasingly unstable throughout 1998, and the economy plummeted into a deep recession. | 1 |
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| Aug. 23 |
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| Pres. Yeltsin sacked Kiriyenko. The Russian Parliament (the Duma) saw increased friction in the face of economic crisis. The third prime minister in six months, former foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov took office on Sept. 11. Pres. Yeltsin remained in poor health at this time, undergoing a series of treatments and surgeries that took him out of the political sphere for weeks at a time. | 2 |
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| Aug. 27–31 |
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| The value of the ruble rapidly fell, and Russia defaulted on its debt. Meanwhile, the Russian stock market was in a veritable free fall, and the government halted trading of the ruble on international currency markets. This financial disaster led to an extended economic crisis and its subsequent political upheavals. Economic recession spread throughout the rest of Asia and much of Eastern Europe. | 3 |
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