?Feliks Kulov for one, apparently. The russified Kyrgyz politician, a leading opposition figure, shares with Feliks Dzerzhinsky not only the first name but also the "chekist" background. Kulov is one of eight presidential aspirants to have been barred from entering the race because they can... MORE

...It has already become almost a cliche that August was the cruelest month for the Russian people, with the fire in Moscow's Ostankino television tower following on the heels of the terrorist bombing at the capital's Pushkin Square, which killed twelve people, and the destruction... MORE

The August disasters, however, did not put any brakes on Russia's seemingly endless political power struggle. In fact, the Ostankino tower fire seemed to accelerate the battle for control of national television--specifically, the conflict between Putin and Boris Berezovsky, the powerful tycoon said to control... MORE

For the Russian military, August was a month dominated by the loss of the Kursk and the recriminations that surrounded the navy's feeble effort to rescue the sub's doomed crew. After nearly a year in which the Chechen war effort, Russian opposition to NATO operations... MORE

?Not surprisingly, recriminations over the Kursk disaster spilled into Russia's military reform debate. Ironically, perhaps, a meeting of the Russian Security Council, one devoted to crucial military restructuring issues, took place only a day before the Kursk went down. In what was an odd and... MORE

Uzbek and Kyrgyz government forces continued this past fortnight to battle the Islamist guerrillas which had penetrated both countries from Tajikistan in early August. The guerrillas are affiliated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), an expatriate force led by Juma Namangani and Tahir Yuldash... MORE

IMU's fighters returned to the home country from Tajikistan, the territory of which they have crossed with impunity several times during the past twelve months. In Uzbekistan, the guerrillas infiltrated three distinct areas. One is a high-altitude area in the Surkhandaria Region, situated in southern... MORE

In Kyrgyzstan, the IMU rebels used the same penetration route they had in August 1999. At that time, they were attempting to reach Uzbekistan's Ferghana Valley via Kyrgyzstan. This year, however, the incursion into Kyrgyzstan provides a sideshow to the main rebel operation, now underway... MORE

Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry announced on August 29 that Uzbekistan has officially requested "military-technical assistance" against the Islamist rebels. Uzbek Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Abdusamat Haidarov submitted the request on August 28 in Moscow to Vyacheslav Trubnikov, the first deputy foreign affairs minister with the... MORE

The fortnight's Big Event in Russian domestic politics was President Vladimir Putin's "roundtable" talks with twenty-one leading businessmen, including a number of the key "oligarchs" whom Putin had repeatedly vowed to drive out the corridors of political power. In fact, the June 28 meeting delivered... MORE