1-Former Russian PM Chernomyrdin dies: Kremlin

Former Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who created gas behemoth Gazprom, has died, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Chernomyrdin, 72, was appointed prime minister by President Boris Yeltsin in 1992 and served until 1998 with a very short spell as acting president while Yeltsin underwent heart surgery, reports Reuters.

He was the longest serving prime minister of post-Soviet Russia but is best known for crafting Gazprom, the world's biggest gas company, out of the Soviet Union's best gas assets.

After the creation of Gazprom, Chernomyrdin, a former Soviet minister of gas, was elected board chairman of the gas giant.