Boris Yeltsin's doctor, Sergei Mironov, gave a radio interview yesterday in which he denied rumors that the Russian president's health is deteriorating and that Yeltsin is suffering from the early stages of Parkinson's disease. Mironov said the shaking of Yeltsin's hands is caused by an... MORE

President Yeltsin has dismissed Col. Gen. Anatoly Trofimov, deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB, the domestic successor to the KGB) and head of the FSB's Moscow and Moscow Region directorate. Yeltsin's decree said Trofimov was sacked for "gross violations and dereliction of duty."... MORE

Marat Baglai was yesterday elected chairman of Russia's Constitutional Court. (Interfax, February 20) Baglai, 65, replaces Vladimir Tumanov, who had to retire because he had reached the age of 70, legal retirement age for judges. Even so, Tumanov stayed on in the post several months... MORE

The Russian government met yesterday to consider the first draft of Russia's sorely needed new tax code. The new code is expected to shift some of the tax burden from firms, which bear the brunt of it under the present tax code, to individuals. It... MORE

U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright arrived in Moscow yesterday, her sixth stop on a nine-country around-the-world trip. But few details were available of her talks with Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin earlier in the day or of a long consultation she held with her... MORE

Russia's deputy prime minister and foreign economic relations minister, Oleg Davydov, stated yesterday that Moscow objects to a contract for the delivery of 320 Ukrainian T-80 UD tanks to Pakistan. Kiev signed the contract "without consulting Russia and against Russia's state interests," Davydov asserted. Davydov... MORE

In three separate incidents during the night of February 18-19 in Dushanbe, unidentified gunmen assassinated five Russians, including four military and security personnel. The most senior victim was a Lt. Col. of the Russian border troops. Several Tajik civilians were also shot in these incidents.... MORE

The newest member of the Russian parliament, disgraced Yeltsin bodyguard Aleksandr Korzhakov, met his constituents in Tula yesterday for the formal handing over of his mandate to represent them in Moscow. Korzhakov revealed that former Kremlin security boss Aleksandr Lebed will not, contrary to rumors,... MORE

Aleksei Lebed, younger brother of presidential hopeful Aleksandr Lebed, has ordered TV and radio transmitters to be turned off in Khakassia, the south-central Siberian republic where he was elected head of state in December. Lebed Junior says he ordered the cessation of TV broadcasts because... MORE

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Science Committee, said yesterday in Moscow that Russia should either live up to its obligations in the International Space Station project or get out of it. He was touring the Khrunichev Design Bureau, which is the prime... MORE