No-confidence vote delayed

Moscow - Russian deputies yesterday postponed for a week a vote of no-confidence in the government of the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin. A motion adjourning the vote until next Wednesday was carried by 228 votes to 137, with one abstention. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov wanted to delay the vote and the decision to do so came after an intervention by President Boris Yeltsin, who combined a veiled threat to dissolve the State Duma if it voted down the government with an offer of talks on key government projects.