Law enforcement authorities in Djohar [Grozny], the Chechen capital, reported yesterday that they had discovered the bodies of ten murder victims at various locations in the city's Leninsk region. While details concerning the murders were contradictory, it appears that four of the victims were women... MORE

Officials in Chechnya's pro-Kremlin administration, the Southern federal district and the Federal Security Service (FSB) have accused both foreign and Russian media of presenting a distorted picture of the situation in Chechnya. During a March 19 meeting in Gudermes, Chechnya, the officials, who included Chechen... MORE

With characteristic outward grace, Petru Lucinschi has bowed out of Moldova's presidential office, though not necessarily out of the political stage. Like his one-time protector Mikhail Gorbachev, Lucinschi will henceforth head a private foundation, in which he plans to assemble "prominent representatives of the intelligentsia"... MORE

Last year saw the best performance by Belarusan agriculture in at least a decade. Despite widespread dissatisfaction with the farm sector, agricultural production last year rose by a reported 9 percent after three consecutive years of downturns (Belapan, February 8). The boost in agricultural output... MORE

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami wound up a high-profile four-day visit to Russia last week. It began on March 12 with summit talks between Khatami and Russian President Vladimir Putin and concluded on March 16 with a joint statement reiterating the intention of the two countries... MORE

While it is clear that Khatami's visit did mark an important stage in the effort by both Tehran and Moscow to improve bilateral relations, the talks appear nonetheless to have left several key issues unresolved. Some observers had been expecting in the weeks leading up... MORE

The upper house of the Russian parliament saw the formation of its first faction last week. Because the rules of the Federation Council specifically forbid factional activity, the new group, which calls itself "Federation," had to describe itself as a "group." Federation, which has been... MORE

On March 15-16 in Yalta, Ukraine hosted the fourth session in as many years of the "Geneva process," which is designed to internationalize the negotiations toward settling the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. The years of nearly exclusive Russian mediation and solely Russian "CIS peacekeeping" conserved the conflict... MORE

The aftermath of last week's hijacking of a Russian passenger jet from Istanbul, Turkey to Medina, Saudi Arabia was the focus of Russian media over the weekend. Among the main topics of discussion were the identity of the hijackers and the circumstances under which three... MORE

A Spanish court is expected to decide either today or tomorrow whether to honor a request by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office that Vladimir Gusinsky, founder and head of the Media-Most group, be extradited to face charges of large-scale fraud. The court began the extradition... MORE