Duma Chairman on conflict with Finance Minister

The conflict on salary arrears to assistants of State Duma deputies has been closed, Gennady Seleznyov, the Chairman of the lower house of the Russian parliament, told journalists today. He said that he had had a telephone conversation with Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin who had assured him that the money had been transferred to regions and the arrears would soon be paid off.

In her turn, State Duma Ethics Committee head Galina Strelchenko told RBC that the problem had not been solved yet and she was going to submit for consideration the question of dismissing Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin and Tatiana Nesterenko, the head of the Federal Treasury's main department.