Nobody in the president's office takes seriously the idea of restoring the monarchy in Russia, according to Yeltsin's press secretary, Sergei Yastrzhembsky. He was commenting on recent Russian television reports. (Interfax, January 29) Lebed Prefers France to Switzerland.

Chechnya's electoral authorities have confirmed that Aslan Maskhadov won Monday's presidential election with 64.8 percent of the vote. Shamil Basaev was second with 24 percent and Zelimkhan Yandarbiev third with 10.2 percent. (RTR, January 29) As for the elections to Chechnya's new parliament, results were... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who yesterday stayed home, was back in the Kremlin this morning for an hour-long meeting with the chairman of Russia's Constitutional Court, Vladimir Tumanov. Details of the meeting were not immediately released, but it may have been connected with the fact... MORE

Since January 22, Abkhaz security forces backed by Russian "peacekeeping" troops have been conducting raids in ethnic Georgian villages of Abkhazia's Gali district. The Abkhaz Security Service claims to have killed at least five Georgian "terrorists," wounded others, and captured more than 20 suspects. Tbilisi... MORE

Georgian parliament chairman Zurab Zhvania, parliamentary National Defense Commission chairman Revaz Adamia, and President Eduard Shevardnadze's adviser for national security, Archil Gegeshidze, told a London conference on "The Prospects of the Caucasus" yesterday that the South Caucasus must not be viewed as a zone of... MORE

Estonian foreign minister Toomas Ilves yesterday called on the West to support Estonia's effort to conclude a border agreement with Russia. Estonia has proved that it has done everything to address Russian objections to earlier drafts in order to clear the way for the signing,... MORE

According to an unnamed source in the Defense Ministry, the Russian arms industry has orders worth $7 billion already this year. He predicted this total could climb to $9 billion by the end of the year if "several interesting projects" come to fruition. The source... MORE

A recent American warning that Russia was "fumbling" its role in the construction of the Alpha International Space Station has struck some raw nerves in Moscow. The criticism came in the form of an article published in the January 27 New York Times that quoted... MORE

Natan Sharansky, a former dissident who left the Soviet Union in 1986, has returned to Moscow for the first time since that date as Israel's industry and trade minister and head of an Israeli trade delegation. Sharansky was a leading human rights activist who was... MORE

U.S. president Bill Clinton said yesterday that he expects a summit meeting with Boris Yeltsin to go ahead as planned in March, and that Russian officials have not given Washington any reason to think otherwise. (Reuter, January 28) But a U.S. newspaper reports that senior... MORE