The Ataman of the Terek Cossack Host, Vladimir Shevtsov, has declared a state of emergency on the Host's territory. The Cossacks are angry that the Russian government has ignored their calls for the Shelkovsky, Naursky, and Nadterechny districts of Chechnya to be transferred to Stavropol... MORE

Voters will go to the polls on February 9 in Tula oblast, south of Moscow, in a by-election for the parliamentary seat vacated by Aleksandr Lebed when he briefly joined the Yeltsin team last summer. The region has been without a representative in the Duma... MORE

Tax collectors in Kirov District of Russia's Yaroslavl oblast went on strike on February 3, complaining they had not been paid their salaries for three months. (Interfax, February 4) The irony is that Russia's mounting wage and pensions arrears are blamed on the state's failure... MORE

Russia's minister for CIS Cooperation, Aman Tuleev, yesterday made public an address to the CIS countries by "representatives of Russia's creative intelligentsia." The address calls for preserving a "common spiritual space" and warns against "Western mass culture which leads to spiritual degradation." The address proclaims... MORE

Acting in his capacity as supreme commander of the armed forces, Tajik president Imomali Rahmonov yesterday dismissed all four deputy defense ministers and appointed other officers in their place. The move was officially announced without explanation. (Interfax, February 6) Russian Prime Minister Begins Talks in... MORE

There are a host of important topics on the agenda during talks set to start today in Washington between visiting Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and U.S. leaders. Trade and technology issues, including Russian delays in the construction of a service module for the joint... MORE

A fight is underway at Russia's VGTRK television company (All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company). Earlier this week, disgruntled staffers published an open letter in the Russian press in which they accused the head of the company, Eduard Sagalaev, of commercializing the state-run company... MORE

In a statement with seemingly ominous undertones, the chief of Russia's Federal Security Service has warned Western leaders that NATO's eastward expansion could provoke a wave of terrorist attacks on NATO facilities in former Warsaw Pact countries. According to Nikolai Kovalev, such attacks would be... MORE

Internecine squabbling has paralyzed Ukraine's Crimea. Yesterday, the Crimean parliament sacked its entire leadership -- the presidium of the Supreme Soviet which includes Speaker Vasily Kiselev, his deputies, and the heads of the standing commissions. The fight has been brewing for some time and springs... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday demanded that the Tajik authorities "find and punish those responsible... for a wave of terrorist attacks on Russian soldiers." According to spokesman Mikhail Demurin, 14 Russians -- including eight soldiers and several military dependents -- were killed in January, mostly in... MORE