Vladimir Galkin, a former mid-level Soviet KGB agent, returned home a hero on November 17 following a U.S. Justice Department decision to drop espionage charges against him. The November 14 court decision brought to a close a spy wrangle that had begun with Galkin's arrest... MORE

Doubts are being expressed over the authenticity of a transcript published on November 15 in Moscow's largest circulation newspaper, Moskovsky komsomolets. The transcripted conversation purportedly took place on June 22 -- between the two rounds of Russia's presidential election -- and involved the chief of... MORE

Security Council secretary Ivan Rybkin met on November 16 with Akhmed Zakaev, an aide to Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, to prepare for the signing of an agreement by the Russian and Chechen prime ministers. "We have no disagreements in principle on any of the issues... MORE

In a sign that Japanese-Russian relations may be developing some forward momentum, Japanese foreign minister Yukihiko Ikeda announced on November 17 that Tokyo would resume disbursing some $500 million in Export-Import Bank loans to Russia. The aid package had been frozen since 1991. Ikeda's announcement... MORE

Russia's troubled space program suffered a serious setback on November 17 when its "Mars-96" interplanetary space probe failed to attain sufficient speed to break out of earth orbit for a planned mission to Mars. Again, the problem was with a booster rocket -- this time... MORE

Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko has "dismissed" Central Election Commission chairman Viktar Ganchar from his post and appointed another chairman by presidential decree. Lukashenko told the country in a broadcast on November 14 that he was dismissing Ganchar for the latter's "destabilizing" refusal to recognize as... MORE

The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Aleksy II, has completed a week-long visit to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in connection with the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Orthodox Church's archbishopric for Central Asia. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church met with... MORE

The number of Russians who say they trust President Boris Yeltsin has fallen sharply in recent months, according to a recent opinion poll. In June, 29 percent of Russians polled identified Yeltsin as the politician they trusted most. Now that number has dropped to 10... MORE

Total Russian output (GDP) shrank in the first 10 months of this year by 6 percent over the first ten months of 1995. (Interfax, AP, November 14) This means that the decline in output is slightly worse than it was at the half-year mark, and... MORE

The chairman of Russia's State Property Committee, Alfred Kokh, revealed yesterday that only 16 percent of planned revenues from privatization were obtained during the first nine months of this year. Kokh proposed reducing the annual revenue target from 12 trillion rubles to approximately 9 trillion.... MORE