Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko told an audience in Hrodna that a presidentially-sponsored commission has drafted constitutional amendments which he proposed in the first place, and that he plans to call a "first Belarus national congress" September 14 to endorse the amendments and a national referendum... MORE

Last week's biggest winner seemed to be presidential Chief-of-Staff Anatoly Chubais. First, Chubais took over from Ilyushin the power to control access to the president; in future, no document will land on Yeltsin's desk and no presidential decree will leave it unless it has been... MORE

Presidential chief-of-staff Anatoly Chubais has said that his number one task is to ensure that Kremlin-friendly governors are elected in the fall, when the governors of fifty Russian regions will run for popular election for the first time. (Until now, most of them were personally... MORE

German chancellor Helmut Kohl told German television last week that he had insisted repeatedly during telephone conversations with Russian president Boris Yeltsin that Moscow had to respect human rights in Chechnya. Kohl, who said he hoped that Aleksandr Lebed would be successful in bringing peace... MORE

The new government appointed by Yeltsin last week, with its strong contingent of economic reformers, was hailed in the West as promising continuity and stability. The Russian media were less enthusiastic: Moskovsky komsomolets called it "a government of missed opportunities." (Moskovsky komsomolets, August 17) Despite... MORE

Last week's spectacular eruption and intersection of two long-simmering Russian conflicts -- one in Chechnya and the other in the Kremlin's halls of power -- have propelled security supremo Aleksandr Lebed back to the center of Russia's political stage and set the retired general against... MORE

Seven Russian airmen escaped from a year's captivity in Afghanistan on August 16, flying their own Ilyushin-76 cargo plane from a Taliban rebel stronghold in Kandahar to the United Arab Emirates. While the crew members attributed their escape to careful planning and good fortune, a... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin has instructed the Russian government to review the lavish spending promises he made during his election campaign. Many are expected to be quietly dropped. Economics Minister Yevgeny Yasin says the government hopes to save some "twenty or thirty trillion rubles." The list... MORE

The Kremlin has denied Western media reports that Russian president Boris Yeltsin is about to undergo surgery. Time Magazine claimed over the weekend to have obtained a report by Yeltsin's doctors saying that his cardiac ischaemia (a heart condition caused by blocked arteries) had deteriorated... MORE

A ceasefire agreement, signed by the acting commander of Russian forces Lt. General Konstantin Pulikovsky and Chechen chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov went officially into effect yesterday, but was thrown into doubt overnight and this morning as Russian troops sought unsuccessfully to reverse recent Chechen... MORE