In November of 1997 markets fall worldwide,
             marking the beginning of the worldwide economic recession.
             On March 23, 1998 Yeltsin sacked his Prime Minister Viktor
             Chernomyrdin and replaced him with not so well known
             Kiriyenko, the energy minister to Viktor Chernomyrdin. May
             12, 1998 coal workers strike over unpaid wages. They block
             the Trans-Siberian railway. This turns foreign investors
             off. Stock prices fall in the same month after the passing
             of a law calling for the removal of all foreign investment
             in Russia's largest energy company. The IMF pulls back
             aid, claiming that the government wasn't doing enough to
             collect taxes. On June 15, Russia asked for more aid from
             the IMF to stave off financial collapse. After Yeltsin and
             the Duma fail to compromise on an anti-crisis tax package,
             property tax was raised. On August 14, Yeltsin reclaims
             that the ruble will not be devaluated. Three days later
             Yeltsin devaluated the currency to nine and a half ruble
             per dollar. August 21, The Duma holds a special session,
             calling Yeltsin to resign. All world markets down on the
             news, investors fear of instability. August 23, Yeltsin
             sacks the Kiriyenko, recalls Chernomyrdin, world markets
             fall again on the news. Two days later, the ruble fell
             forty percent, its worst in four years. Yeltsin suspends
             ruble trading, the rubles officially at 7.9 per U.S.
             dollar, yet U.S. Dollars on the streets of Moscow go for
             up to 12 rubles. Later, that week Chernomyrdin was rejected
             as the premier of Russia. Veteran Foreign Minister Yevgeny
             Primakov is appointed Russia's Prime Minister. Yeltsin's
             choice of the former spymaster and Middle East hand was
             seen as the best hope of uniting hard-line Communists and
             Reformers behind an emergency program to deal with an acute
             financial crisis. These are the causes over one year which
             led to the collaps...