One key appointment Yeltsin must soon make is chief of the Federal Security Service (FSB, domestic successor to the KGB). Yeltsin sacked former director Mikhail Barsukov immediately following the first round of the election, and is expected personally to pick his successor. Favorites for the... MORE

Russia's High Command was rocked over the weekend when lawmakers voted 301-0 on July 5 to launch an investigation into reports of widespread embezzlement by military leaders. In addition, the Duma requested an audit of the state arms trading company, Rosvooruzheniye. The Duma investigation comes... MORE

Rokhlin charged that General Konstantin Kobets was mixed up with a construction company called Lyukon that had bilked the government out of billions of rubles earmarked for military housing. Kobets, whose son was a co-founder of Lyukon, is a long-time Yeltsin loyalist whose name has... MORE

In remarks published by a Russian newspaper July 2, Rokhlin charged that the Russian armed forces are in abysmal condition because, among other things, military leaders have failed to pursue any meaningful military reform. According to Rokhlin, significant reductions in overall military manpower since 1992... MORE

A Russian deputy foreign minister told an Arab-language newspaper July 5 that Moscow expects recently elected Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to moderate his attitude toward the Middle East peace process as he settles into office. According to Viktor Posuvalyuk, Moscow is not pessimistic about... MORE

The Russian media continue to speculate over the composition of President Boris Yeltsin's new government. Yeltsin is seen as having scored so convincing a victory in the second round that he is unlikely to form the coalition government of which there was so much talk... MORE

Meeting in Moscow July 6, the popular-patriotic bloc that backed Gennady Zyuganov's unsuccessful presidential bid resolved to turn itself from a bloc into a movement. Their ambition is to form a shadow cabinet. The meeting was held behind closed doors and there were unconfirmed reports... MORE

The Tajik government announced over the weekend that its troops had recaptured Tavildara town and much of Tavildara district, seized by opposition forces last May. Casualty figures from the latest fighting were not yet available, the government said. Government-opposition negotiations are reopening in Turkmenistan's capital... MORE

According to Russian news sources, President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree July 2 that subordinates the once powerful Russian Presidential Security Service to the Federal Bodyguard Service. The new agency, which reports say is being called the State Protection Service, will be headed temporarily by... MORE

President Yeltsin is reported to have signed a decree before the second round of the election dismissing Georgy Rogozin, first deputy head of the presidential security service. Rogozin has until now been deputy to General Aleksandr Korzhakov, whom Yeltsin also sacked during the election campaign... MORE