The proclamations were based on figures that included a mere 0.2 percent rise in gross domestic product - hardly cause for jubilation in most developed countries.
But coming after at least six years of steady and severe shrinkage, and coinciding with other signs of improving economic health, the slight January-March expansion was greeted here as the start of a long-awaited turnaround.
"The great depression of the Russian economy that has been in evidence for decades has halted," proclaimed Yuri Yurkov, chair of the State Statistics Committee, at the periodic briefing that until this quarter had been a dispiriting venue. "It is time to end the lamentation that everything is about to collapse."
Russia suffered a 6-percent reduction in GDP in 1996 - half of it in the first three months. That was the sixth straight year of economic erosion and a particularly bitter showing because growth had been predicted.
Rebel chief Laurent Desire Kabila had given Mobutu three days to resign or watch the rebels - who in seven months have captured nearly half the mineral-rich country - advance on Kinshasa.