Russian Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov says he suspects that vote-rigging in last Sunday's gubernatorial election enabled the pro-Yeltsin incumbent, Vladimir Chub, to defeat his Communist challenger, Leonid Ivanchenko. (NTV, October 1) Voting was slowed by stormy weather that knocked out power to some polling... MORE

Coalminers in Vorkuta, inside the Arctic Circle, staged a one-day warning strike and a protest rally yesterday. Some have not received wages since February. Adding political demands to economic ones, demonstrators called for the resignation of both President Yeltsin and his government. (Itar- Tass, Interfax,... MORE

. A senior unnamed Russian diplomat in Tokyo suggested on October 1 that Russia and Japan create a joint regional antimissile defense system, one that could possibly also be hooked up to a similar U.S. system. The diplomat said that the Japanese are aware of... MORE

Programs to upgrade the security and control of nuclear materials at research facilities in Belarus and Uzbekistan have been completed, according to an October 1 U.S. Department of Energy press release. Safeguards were installed at the Sosny Scientific and Technical Center in Belarus, and the... MORE

Russian Security Council secretary Aleksandr Lebed yesterday compared NATO to a "fist" pointed at Russia and charged that the alliance's enlargement could return Europe to Cold War-style confrontation. Lebed also suggested that the West would be better off boosting aid to Russia rather than devoting... MORE

Tajik presidential spokesman Zafar Saidov told Russian correspondents yesterday that the defeat of the Afghan authorities in Kabul may have "destroyed" Moscow's and Dushanbe's agreement with those authorities to cooperate against the Tajik opposition on the Tajik-Afghan border. Dushanbe "had hoped to turn that border... MORE

Abkhazia yesterday celebrated the third anniversary of its 1993 military victory against Georgia. Several days earlier Georgia had observed its own September 27 Day of Remembrance and Hope, instituted by President Eduard Shevardnadze to honor the memory of Georgian victims of "ethnic cleansing" in Abkhazia.... MORE

With the prestige and morale of the armed forces at an all-time low, the Russian military -- along with the other "power structures" -- is about to embark on another semi-annual draft of 18-year-old men. President Boris Yeltsin's decree of September 29 said that the... MORE

The U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously adopted a special resolution urging Russia to withdraw its troops from Moldova. The resolution expresses concern over Russia's "tergiversation" in implementing the 1994 troop withdrawal agreement and calls on Russia to carry it out without delay. It also... MORE

The Kremlin is licking its wounds following the election victories of Communist-backed governors in Amur oblast on September 22 and Leningrad oblast on September 29. The September 29 reelection of the Kremlin-backed incumbent governor in Rostov oblast seems to be little comfort. The narrow defeat... MORE