On September 30, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma released Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk from his post. The president appointed Anatoly Zlenko, 62, a former minister of foreign affairs (1990-94) and ambassador to the United Nations (1994-97) and to France (from 1997 to date) as Tarasyuk's... MORE

During his just-completed visit to the United States, President Haidar Aliev of Azerbaijan took the unprecedented step of publicly criticizing some oil companies for stalling the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (Turkey) main export pipeline project (MEP). Aliev specifically named ExxonMobil and alluded to BP Amoco as the companies... MORE

meanwhile, exports its early oil through the Baku-Supsa (Georgia) pipeline which it owns and operates. But that pipeline can accommodate only a fraction of the future oil output from Azerbaijan. Any expansion of that pipeline would be pointless because, first, it terminates on the Black... MORE

Perhaps it was a sign that the summer was truly over and the fall political season in full swing. Whatever the case, the din of corruption charges and mutual recriminations between the government and its critics dominated the fortnight in Russian politics. Perhaps emboldened by... MORE

Coincidentally or not, by the fortnight's close, Gusinsky and Media-Most were once again in the hot seat, with the revelation that Gusinsky had signed an agreement to hand over Media-Most to the media arm of Gazprom, the 38-percent state-owned natural gas company. In return, the... MORE

In the foreign policy sphere, meanwhile, relations with Asia were highlighted as Moscow played host to a lengthy visit by one of China's most powerful political figures and the Russian president traveled to Tokyo for a long-awaited summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.... MORE

A nine-day visit to Russia by China's number two ranking leader, chairman of the National People's Congress Li Peng, was notable for both the lack of press attention that it received in Russia and the West and the seeming dearth of significant results that it... MORE

Russian-Japanese relations over the past several weeks have had no similar lack of highlights and controversy. During Putin's September 3-5 visit to Tokyo, differences between the two countries over the long-standing Kuril Islands dispute finally came to a head. Although both sides tried to downplay... MORE

Interviewed in the Tallinn daily Postimees on September 12, Foreign Affairs Minister Toomas Ilves observed that Estonia's steps to improve relations with Russia have had practically no effect on Moscow's policy. That observation rested on ample evidence. It is four years since Estonia agreed to... MORE

Colonel-General Gennady Troshev, commander of Russia's North Caucasus Military District, inspected Russian troops in Georgia on September 13-15 and held talks with the leadership in Tbilisi. On September 14 the Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Henry Shelton, conferred with Georgia's... MORE