President Yeltsin's former bodyguard and security chief, Aleksandr Korzhakov, has cleared a hurdle on the way to a seat in the Russian parliament -- which would also give him coveted immunity from prosecution. Korzhakov's supporters have collected 8,000 signatures to support his candidacy in the... MORE

The Russian parliament has voted by a substantial majority to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the powers that President Yeltsin has vested in his administration. Deputies complained that Chief-of-Staff Anatoly Chubais has been granted powers that, under the constitution, rightfully belong to other... MORE

Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov departed from Moscow yesterday for a nine-day trip to Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Japan, and China. In Tokyo Primakov and Japanese leaders are expected to discuss trade and economic cooperation; the disputed Kuril Islands will also be on the agenda. While in... MORE

During a November 10 interview on Russian television, NATO secretary-general Javier Solana deflected a question on whether Russia might join the Western alliance, as has recently been proposed by Russian Security Council secretary Ivan Rybkin. Solana emphasized that Russia had made no application to join... MORE

The remains of more than 400 Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya remain unidentified at the military forensic laboratory in Rostov-na-Donu. According to Sergei Osipov, a member of President Yeltsin's commission for POWs, detainees and missing, the identification process is poorly financed with the result that... MORE

Western financial aid of $100 million is needed for the construction of a special plant to destroy Russian chemical weapons. But according to Col. Gen. Stanislav Petrov, chief of the Chemical Troops, Russia has thus far received less than one-tenth of that amount. Several plants... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin's press secretary says the president will make an address to the nation by the end of this week. (RTR, November 11) He did not say whether the address would be on radio or television. Until undergoing surgery a week ago, Yeltsin was... MORE

Boris Yeltsin has ordered a full investigation into the November 10 bomb blast at a south Moscow cemetery in which 14 people were killed. (NTV, RTR, November 11) The explosion killed the head of the Fund for Invalids of the Afghan War, Sergei Trakhirov. Stung... MORE

In an interview published in yesterday's Komsomolskaya pravda, ousted Russian Security Council secretary Aleksandr Lebed predicted that Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin will soon be made the scapegoat for Russia's financial problems and be dismissed from his post. His place, according to Lebed, will go to... MORE

In a reversal on a now familiar theme, two Eastern European leaders have urged that countries seeking NATO membership be given a voice in talks on a political agreement between the Western alliance and Russia. Moscow has long sought -- directly or indirectly -- to... MORE