Kalmykov, 60, tendered his resignation in October, but Yeltsin delayed a final decision. Kalmykov, who has not been in the best of health, gave no reasons why he wanted to quit.
In November Yeltsin proposed him as a candidate to become a Constitutional Court judge but the Federation Council, parliament's upper house, rejected Kalmykov and several other Yeltsin candidates.
Yeltsin appointed Kalmykov an acting minister in April 1993 and confirmed him in the post in August, just a month before he dissolved the old Soviet-era parliament.
Kalmykov strongly backed Yeltsin in his confrontation with hardline deputies during the bloody revolt in Moscow in October 1993.
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