Pressing its attack on market reforms, the Communist-dominated legislature stripped President Boris Yeltsin's privatization czar of the right to sell state property Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, who has been criticized by lawmakers for months, said the move was a blow to Yeltsin's attempt to reshape the Russian economy. There was no immediate reaction from Yeltsin.The Supreme Soviet legislature voted to transfer the right to privatize from the State Property Managing Committee headed by Chubais to a variety of government ministries and departments, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
It was the parliament's second attack on Yeltsin's economic reforms in two days.
On Tuesday, lawmakers suspended Yeltsin's May 8 decree speeding up the sale of thousands of state-owned industries. They asked the Constitutional Court to review the decree.
The legislature is dominated by former Communist factory directors and officials who oppose Yeltsin's attempts to build a free market economy in post-Soviet Russia.
Lawmakers say rapid dismantling of state economic control has brought unchecked inflation and impoverished most citizens. They argue that bigger government subsidies - not privatization - is the key to reversing the steep decline in Russian industrial production.