Protests have greeted Sergei Glazyev's allegation, made in a televised press conference on August 20, that supporters of Russia's production-sharing law are in the pay of transnational corporations. Glazyev was addressing his first press conference in his capacity as head of the economic security directorate... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin returned to the Kremlin from a two-day holiday in Valdai on August 21. Yeltsin was said to be planning to resume work in the Kremlin and to meet with candidates for seven vacant posts in the Russian government. (Interfax, August 21)... MORE

There was a flurry of activity on the international scene yesterday as world leaders reacted finally to Russia's threatened bombardment of the Chechen capital. The French and Italian Foreign Ministries expressed their misgivings over the situation in the Caucasus and urged both sides to return... MORE

In Washington the Clinton administration has also condemned the threat of renewed bloodshed in Chechnya. U.S. president Bill Clinton reportedly sent a letter to Yeltsin yesterday urging an end to the violence. A day earlier State Department spokesman Glyn Davies, referring to a Russian threat... MORE

Dagestan is observing today a day of mourning for Finance Minister Hamid Hamidov, assassinated in a car bombing August 20, and four other persons killed in the same explosion. Hamidov, until recently a deputy to Russia's Duma, was considered as Dagestan's most prominent private entrepreneur.... MORE

The Russian daily Izvestiya suggested yesterday that the U.S. might lose its current ambassador's residence in Moscow over a rent dispute. The U.S. is reportedly resisting the Russian Foreign Ministry's efforts to raise the rent for the centrally located mansion to $60,000 annually. A twenty-year... MORE

Russia's highest security official, Aleksandr Lebed, arrived in Chechnya yesterday for talks with the military command and the Chechen resistance leadership. Lebed had made clear ahead of the trip that he opposed a military onslaught on the capital Grozny, recaptured by the resistance August 6;... MORE

Russian defense minister Igor Rodionov joined Ground Forces commander in chief Vladimir Semenov, North Caucasus Military District commander Anatoly Kvashnin, and other top military officials in Volgograd yesterday. While the presence of the military leaders was pointedly ascribed to the conduct of regularly scheduled annual... MORE

According to Russian government figures, consumer price inflation for the week of 13-19 August was 0.1 percent. This is the first time Russia has recorded an actual fall in the price of consumer goods (as opposed to a decline in the rate of growth of... MORE

Signaling the Kremlin's intention to remain active in the Middle East peace process, a deputy foreign minister said on August 20 that Russia was working to arrange for a visit to Moscow by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and also hoped to host Palestinian leader... MORE