Yesterday (March 27) marked the one-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin's victory at the polls and transformation from Russia's acting head of state--a position he assumed after Boris Yeltsin's resignation on December 21, 1999--to its newly elected president. To mark the anniversary, several of Russia's main... MORE

A new Ukrainian political party, established just a year before the next round of parliamentary elections (scheduled for March 2002), apparently has a good chance of winning them. Moreover, the leader of this fledgling organization--the Party of Regions--has calmly proclaimed winning the next presidential elections... MORE

Russia's State Statistical Office announced on March 19 that industrial output in February was only 0.8 percent higher than it had been in February 2000. February marks the third consecutive month of falling or low industrial output growth, and as such raised questions about the... MORE

On March 25, the Republic of Tatarstan held its third presidential election. The results were predictable: Incumbent President Mintimer Shaimiev won by a landslide (Russian agencies, March 26). Until recently, Russian law did not allow regional leaders to stay in office for more than two... MORE

The Communist Party's return to power in Moldova will prompt Western governments and nongovernmental and international organizations, as a matter of course, to look for a democratic alternative in that country. They will presumably seek to identify and encourage Moldovan democratic groups capable of forming... MORE

On March 23-24 in Moscow, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and Georgia's Foreign Affairs Minister Irakli Menagarishvili held talks on the Russian military bases in Georgia. Follow-up comments by both sides suggest that Moscow insists on retaining the Batumi and Akhalkalaki bases for the... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Stockholm on March 23 for a half-day of talks with European leaders gathered there for a two-day EU summit meeting. Putin's visit was seen as significant by many in Moscow because it came against a background of increasingly acrimonious... MORE

Investigative journalist Oleg Lurye has detailed corruption which Aleksandr Voloshin allegedly engaged in prior to his elevation as Kremlin chief of staff. According to an article written by Lurye in the latest issue of Novaya Gazeta, from 1995-1997 Voloshin headed a company called the Federal... MORE

According to the latest figures, twenty-three people were killed and more than 120 wounded as the result of three bomb blasts in southern Russia on March 24. The explosions took place when three cars packed with explosives blew up within minutes of each other in... MORE

Russia's security agencies came under sharp criticism from several newspapers today from what the publications saw as their inability to neutralize Chechen terrorists. Kommersant noted that the explosions took place at a time when law enforcement and security agencies were carrying out a special operation,... MORE