The year 2000 saw the best economic performance in the CIS since the Soviet collapse. For the first time since independence, all twelve countries in the region reported GDP growth in 2000, many of them at very high rates. Growth ranged from a high, if... MORE

The strong economic growth reported in the CIS last year was apparent in the region's excellent export performance--which was also a dramatic change from most of the 1990s. Dollar export growth ranged from a low of 2 percent for Moldova (due to drought conditions) to... MORE

On May 18 in Baku, a regular meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers failed to adopt two Russian proposals designed to draw the independent-minded countries closer to the CIS Collective Security Treaty. Russia's new defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, presented both proposals, which seek... MORE

A summit meeting between Russia and the European Union, which took place in Moscow on May 17, produced new proclamations of support for an evolving Russian-EU "strategic partnership," but appeared to yield little in the way of concrete agreements on important issues. The meeting was... MORE

In January, the Russian State Duma amended the law on regional government in such a way as to give the leaders of sixty-nine of Russia's eighty-nine regions the right to run for a third term of office, even though the law had originally restricted governors... MORE

Only a week remains before the gubernatorial election in Primorsky Krai scheduled for May 27, but the far eastern region is in deep political crisis. After deputies to the krai's legislative assembly accused Konstantin Pulikovsky, President Vladimir Putin's emissary to the Far Eastern federal district,... MORE

The prospect of a political settlement between Chisinau and Tiraspol seems more distant than ever after the latest developments in the OSCE-mediated negotiations. The situation puts the prestige of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at risk as the deadline it has... MORE

The meeting in Tiraspol resulted in four "protocol agreements"--official parlance for nonbinding documents that can range from records of negotiation (minutes) to conditional statements of intent, and subject to further consideration. The first of these is abolishing Transdniester's "customs" checkpoints and the Chisinau government's "fiscal"... MORE

Initial reactions to a British proposal aimed at revising the UN sanctions regime on Iraq suggest that Moscow is likely once again to emerge as the leader of opposition on the UN Security Council to U.S. and British efforts to resuscitate the sanctions and to... MORE

Russian opposition to the enactment of so-called "smart sanctions" was not unexpected and, indeed, reportedly followed an appeal to Moscow by a top Iraqi official. According to Itar-Tass, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz had asked Russia to use its Security Council veto to block... MORE