Charles Gurin

The most-talked about part of President Vladimir Putin’s recent nationally televised call-in program was his answer to a question concerning his plans after his second term ends in 2008. “I

With the 60th anniversary Victory Day celebrations set for May 9, the architect of perestroika and a leading historian of that period have spoken out against what they both see

President Vladimir Putin made his first comments on the events in Kyrgyzstan from Yerevan today (March 25). The events in Kyrgystan were not unexpected and were the result of both

Moscow's political and business elites spent much of yesterday (March 17) discussing who was behind an apparent attempt that morning to kill Anatoly Chubais, head of Unified Energy Systems (UES),

The effective nationalization of Yuganskneftegaz, formerly the embattled Yukos oil company's main production unit, was completed on New Year's Eve, when the state oil company Rosneft announced that it had

Yukos was hit by a series of new blows on November 18. The embattled oil company's chief lawyer, Dmitry Gololobov, told reporters in London, where he was on a business

President Vladimir Putin's increasingly outspoken economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov, has called the legal onslaught against Yukos politically motivated and said it should stop. Speaking at a Moscow press conference organized

Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov's proposal that Russia's law-enforcement agencies be permitted to detain terrorists' relatives as a "counter-hostage-taking" measure has elicited criticism from human rights activists and law-enforcement personnel alike.

A poll conducted October 15-18 by the Levada Center, the independent polling agency headed by the eminent sociologist Yuri Levada, delivered a mixed message concerning Russians' attitudes towards various types

A recent wave of apparently racist attacks, including the murders of an Uzbek migrant worker in Moscow and a Vietnamese student in St. Petersburg (see EDM, October 15 and 18),

Some 2,000 people gathered on Pushkin Square in central Moscow on Saturday October 23 to protest the war in Chechnya and, more broadly, the administration of President Vladimir Putin. Members

The North Caucasus republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia has been buffeted by instability this week. Over three successive days, a group of several hundred distraught relatives and friends of seven people who

The idea that Russian President Vladimir Putin should stay on beyond his second and last constitutionally mandated term was given fresh expression yesterday (October 19) by Pavel Borodin, state secretary

On October 14, fresh on the heels of the racially motivated murder of a Vietnamese student in St. Petersburg, four men beat and stabbed two citizens of Uzbekistan in the

The murder of a Vietnamese student in St. Petersburg has once again underscored the growing problem of racist violence in Russia. Eyewitnesses report that on the evening of October 13,

There are growing indications that the Kremlin's centralization measures may soon move well beyond what it has thus far made public, including the plan to make the country's governors presidential

Various Russian media have reported that a bill will soon be introduced into the State Duma that will turn the post of city mayor from an elected position into an

A poll conducted over September 24-27 by the Levada Center, the independent polling agency headed by the eminent sociologist Yuri Levada, found that for the sake of fighting terrorism, Russians

Several hundred leftist demonstrators marked the eleventh anniversary of the so-called "October Events" of October 3-4, 1993. A group estimated by police at no more than 100, made up of

An interview published on September 29 with a key adviser to President Vladimir Putin, deputy presidential administration chief Vladislav Surkov, has elicited comment from a number of Russian observers. Komsomolskaya

While the murder of a businessman is hardly news in Russia, the death of the head of a private security company in St. Petersburg on September 24 has raised eyebrows.

Forty-eight percent of Russians polled by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) have expressed disagreement with the centerpiece of President Vladimir Putin's recently announced plan to

Nezavisimaya gazeta reported today (September 20) that in parallel with the Kremlin's restructuring of the country's system of governance in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks, the State Duma's

In a sign of rising ethnic tensions in the wake of the Beslan school massacre, four people from the Caucasus were hospitalized after being beaten and stabbed in the late

The last Soviet leader and the first post-Soviet Russian president have waded into the debate swirling around President Vladimir Putin's proposals to end popular elections for the governors in Russia's

In yet another move apparently aimed at strengthening the Kremlin's "vertical of power" in the wake of the Beslan tragedy, President Vladimir Putin on September 14 gave a green light

Russians are still in shock and mourning over the vast human tragedy in Beslan, North Ossetia. However, a number of observers, including both supporters and critics of the Kremlin, are

A bombing near the Rizhskaya metro station in northeastern Moscow on August 31 may have been the work of a female suicide bomber who was the sister of a Chechen

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has abandoned its initial opinion that the near-simultaneous crashes of two civilian airliners on August 24 were likely the result of pilot error, mechanical defects,

The U.S. government on August 12 weighed in on the situation surrounding the beleaguered Russian oil giant Yukos. State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli reiterated the position that Washington has

The "mystery backer" behind an offer to pay off Yukos' tax arrears is a consortium of Dubai-based investors, the Sunday Times reported on August 8. "Members of Dubai's ruling Maktoum

Yukos' topsy-turvy fortunes took another sharp dip downward on August 5, when the Justice Ministry announced it had revoked an earlier decision by court bailiffs allowing the company to use

The State Duma on August 3 approved a Kremlin-supported bill in its second reading that would replace Soviet-vintage social benefits -- to such groups as pensioners, war veterans, the disabled,

A Qatar appeals court on July 29 rejected an appeal by two Russian intelligence agents sentenced to life imprisonment for the February bombing that killed former Chechen separatist president Zelimkhan

In what could be a further indication that the Kremlin plans to seize back the commanding heights of Russia's economy -- i.e., the energy sector -- the state-owned Rosneft oil

Observers have expressed skepticism that the Russian government will accept a London-based consortium's proposal to pay off Yukos' multi-billion-dollar tax bill and buy out a majority stake in the embattled

Yukos has warned that it could be forced to halt operations and exports and face bankruptcy within a month. The embattled oil company said in a statement that the court

Yukos appears poised on the brink of extinction following the Justice Ministry's July 20 announcement that it will put the oil company's main production unit, Yuganskneftegaz, up for sale to

While there are apparently no leads thus far in the Russian authorities' investigation of the July 9 murder of Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian-language version of Forbes magazine, various

The presidential decree restructuring the Federal Security Service (FSB), which was signed by President Vladimir Putin on July 11 and made public by the Kremlin on July 14, has not

Russian observers continue to discuss the July 9 murder of American journalist Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine. Gazeta.ru wrote that the list of Russia's 100

The murder of Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian-language version of Forbes magazine, which began publication in April, has shocked observers in both Russia and the West. It has also

With the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) now split in two (a faction of KPRF members who oppose its leader, Gennady Zyuganov, held their own party congress on

Yuri Shchekochikhin, a State Duma deputy and veteran investigative journalist, died under mysterious circumstances one year ago, and Novaya gazeta, the publication where he was a deputy editor, devoted eight

July 1 was a bad day for Yukos, and perhaps the beginning of the end for the embattled oil company. First, three court bailiffs, accompanied by five guards in camouflage

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Interfax news agency on June 29 that Russia "does not have any intention of helping Iraq set up its army." Lavrov was speaking in

An extreme nationalist group has claimed responsibility for the murder of St. Petersburg ethnologist Nikolai Girenko. On June 19, the 64-year-old expert on ethnic and racial issues, who has provided

While the numbers are still preliminary, Russian news agencies early on June 23 quoted a source in Ingushetia's Interior Ministry as saying that 57 people were killed in attacks launched

Russian observers, like their US counterparts, have been reacting to President Vladimir Putin's assertion that Russian intelligence agencies had received information that Saddam Hussein's regime was planning terrorist attacks against

In a move that sent Russia's stock market into frenzied trading, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 17 that authorities are not seeking to bankrupt embattled oil company Yukos.

Are the Russian government and the Kremlin's political party pushing for a law that would give the state the power to nationalize private businesses? Earlier this month, one of United

When the G8 summit at Sea Island, Georgia ended on June 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised host country America "for both the content of the discussion and the atmosphere,"

The Moscow District Military Court on June 10 acquitted six defendants accused of killing Moskovsky Komsomolets reporter Dmitry Kholodov in October 1994, arguing that the prosecutor general's office had failed

Prosecutors in Qatar have asked that two Russian special services agents accused of assassinating former Chechen separatist President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in February be sentenced to death. Dmitri Afanasyev, an attorney

A statue of Yuri Andropov, the Soviet leader and KGB head, has been erected in front of the building housing the Karelia Federal Security Service (FSB) directorate in Petrozavodsk, Karelia's

On May 25, head of the Interior Ministry's internal affairs department Konstantin Romodanovsky briefed Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev on the involvement of officers from the State Road Safety Inspectorate (GIBDD)

An explosion took place in central Moscow on May 25, injuring seven passers by, none of them seriously. The blast, which was caused by an explosive device that had been

In a poll taken among inhabitants of Russia's 12 largest cities earlier this month, 26 percent of respondents said that they had experienced mistreatment at the hands of police, ranging

On May 19, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev addressed the State Duma in closed hearings concerning the situation in Chechnya and the investigation of the May 9 assassination of Chechnya's Kremlin-backed

On May 17, Russian forces in Chechnya sustained what Izvestia characterized as their largest losses in a single day this year. The newspaper and other Russian media reported that three

Committee 2008-Free Choice, the democratic opposition group founded and headed by chess champion Garry Kasparov, has brought new members into its leadership and announced plans to broaden into a democratic

Saratov's chief prosecutor, Anatoly Bondar, announced on May 14 that criminal proceedings have been instituted against the region's governor, Dmitry Ayatskov, for abuse of power connected to the alleged misuse

Yevgeny Loginov, director of international projects for Interenergoservis, said yesterday (May 13) that the company would evacuate all 340 of its employees working in Iraq if the fate of two

Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly flew to Chechnya on the morning of May 11, announcing the visit only during a Cabinet meeting he chaired after returning to Moscow later in

In a huge blow to President Vladimir Putin's policy in Chechnya, pro-Moscow Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov was killed on May 9 in a large explosion that occurred in Grozny's Dinamo

Investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office seized documents from the central office of Yukos Oil in Moscow on May 6. A source in the company told Interfax's Petroleum Information Agency

Russia's Foreign Ministry weighed in yesterday on the scandal surrounding the abuse of Iraqis detained by U.S.-led coalition forces. Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov called the reported "cases of torture"

The head of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, Valentina Melnikova, told Ekho Moskvy on May 4 that her organization estimates that about 25,000 Russian soldiers and policemen have

On April 29, representatives of a recently-formed youth movement filed documents with the Moscow City Election Commission to register an initiative group whose aim would be drumming up support for

The end of April saw a ratcheting up of tensions between Russia and Latvia. This happened despite the fact that Russia and the EU agreed on April 27 to extend