The latest public opinion poll shows incumbent President Boris Yeltsin edging ahead of his nearest presidential rival for the first time. It finds Yeltsin with the support of 20.7 percent of respondents, compared to 19.8 percent for Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov. The poll, which was... MORE

The Russian Central Bank is to double charter capital requirements for new banks, the Financial Times reports today. As of May 8, the requirement will go up from 6 billion to 12 billion rubles, and new banks will be required to operate for two years... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday assailed Washington over what Moscow said were U.S. attempts to monopolize peace negotiations in the Middle East. Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, just returned to Moscow following three days of talks in the region, slammed Washington for its attempts to "act single-handedly... MORE

Chechen president Djohar Dudaev's former aide Hodjahmed Yarihanov said yesterday that Dudaev was killed in a Russian bombing attack during the night of April 21-22 while making a satellite phone call to potential mediators in the Russian-Chechen conflict. Yarihanov further claimed that a military council... MORE

A powerful fire in an area of abandoned villages, grassland, and forest situated some 10 kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, lasted for seven and a half hours yesterday before being extinguished. The fire was tentatively traced to a cigarette butt originating from authorized... MORE

Ukraine's Environment and Nuclear Safety Minister Yuri Kostenko said yesterday that the G-7 nuclear safety summit has created confidence that Ukraine will receive the promised aid for closing the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. However, Kostenko stressed that the aid must begin arriving very soon if... MORE

The chairman of the Russian Citizens' Union in Estonia's Russified city of Narva, Yuri Mishin, is warning that Russians there and in other urban areas may proclaim their own, parallel government unless non-citizens of Estonia are allowed to vote and to run in this year's... MORE

The latest round of Lithuanian-Russian negotiations on defining the common border adjourned without results. The talks concern the border between Lithuania and that exclave of Russia. The delegations differed over how to draw the border along several inland bodies of water and also in a... MORE

Russia yesterday welcomed an April 22 decision by Polish military prosecutors not to act on allegations that former prime minister Jozef Oleksy had spied for Moscow. Russia's Foreign Ministry described the decision as a "victory for common sense and justice," while the Foreign Intelligence Service... MORE

Russia yesterday launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the last of five modules for its Mir space station. Named Priroda (nature), the module was carried into orbit aboard a Proton rocket. It is expected to dock with Mir on Friday. The vessel is carrying... MORE