Declaring his unwillingness to hand over "several strategically important Russian lands to a rival power along the eastern stretch of the Russo-Chinese border," the head of the Russian commission marking the border resigned from his post April 5. The action by Major General Valery Rozov... MORE

Yuri Boldyrev has been officially registered as a candidate in the election for mayor of Russia's second city, scheduled for May 19. (St. Petersburg TV channel, April 4) Many analysts consider the popular Boldyrev to be the only candidate with a chance of unseating incumbent... MORE

At an April 4 press conference in Moscow, one of the leaders of the fledgling electoral alliance "Third Force," Oleg Rumyantsev, acknowledged that it had failed to agree on a single presidential candidate. (NTV, April 4) His statement ended speculation about a joint campaign by... MORE

Communist party presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov, who has claimed that much of Communist doctrine is in full accordance with the Gospel message, marked Orthodox Palm Sunday by touring the Trinity Sergius monastery near Moscow in the company of Russian Orthodox monks. The same day, Nina... MORE

Communist and Agrarian Duma deputies have drafted legislation to counteract the recent presidential decree that gave farmers the right to sell land freely or bequeath it to their heirs, Moskovsky komsomolets reported April 5. The Duma bill would forbid the sale or purchase of land.... MORE

Interviewed in the weekly Pravda-5 (No. 13, April 5-12), Yuri Maslyukov has confirmed that a Communist leadership would restore the main elements of central economic planning. Maslyukov's ideas are of interest not only because he chairs the Duma's Economic Policy Committee, but also because he... MORE

General Valentin Varennikov told a press conference in Moscow April 3 not to be afraid of the Communists since allegations that they would carry out mass executions were "all nonsense." (NTV, April 3) The general repeated his claim, which earlier caused some embarrassment to Communist... MORE

With the aim of convincing Moscow that Poland's entry into NATO is not a threat, Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski will arrive in Moscow tomorrow following a visit today to Katyn, the mass grave of World War II Polish officers murdered by Soviet security forces. Kwasniewski... MORE

Russian aviation, artillery, and ground forces attacked what the military command termed "a dozen villages" in western and eastern Chechnya with full force over the weekend, as part of the "special operations" authorized by president Boris Yeltsin's April 1 decree on settling the conflict. Separately,... MORE

Three Russian officers have dropped out of the presidential race, the Central Election Commission announced April 5. They are the commander of Russia's Far Eastern Military District, General Viktor Chechevatov; a Duma deputy and former deputy defense minister, Boris Gromov; and the head of the... MORE