There is general agreement that President Boris Yeltsin has gained the most from the hornets' nest stirred up by the Duma vote. While the Communists forfeited their moderate image overnight, Yeltsin's popularity surged as he was suddenly perceived as the only politician strong enough to... MORE

The lower house of the Russian parliament agreed yesterday to consider the appeal made to it by the upper house to review its March 15 resolution on restoring the Soviet Union. But the Duma declined to debate the matter in plenary session and referred the... MORE

The Russian Communist party has prepared a package of laws to restore the socialist economy and has readied a list of candidates for ministerial posts, Izvestiya reported March 20. The newspaper detailed what it said were the Communist party's as yet unpublished plans to reintroduce... MORE

In what U.S. officials described as a major foreign policy speech, U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher yesterday promised Eastern European countries that NATO "has made a commitment to take in new members and it must not, and will not, keep new democracies in the... MORE

Turkey's ambassador to Russia, Bilgin Unan, yesterday criticized his Greek counterpart for remarks made a day earlier that, in Unan's view, were intended "to spoil relations between Ankara and Moscow." (See Monitor, March 19) Unan suggested that Greece, a traditional rival of Turkey's, was jealous... MORE

Russia's Minister of Foreign Economic Relations was scheduled to fly to Tripoli yesterday to discuss plans for widening bilateral economic relations in the event that sanctions on the North African country are lifted. Oleg Davydov listed oil and energy projects as among the most desirable... MORE

Russia's Federation Council approved a statement yesterday affirming Russia's right to pursue trade relations with Cuba. The document was a response to U.S. legislation passed earlier this month that tightened a U.S. trade embargo against Havana. The Russian statement says the U.S. legislation contradicts international... MORE

Voicing deep concern over continuing hostilities in Chechnya, the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) yesterday reminded Moscow of the human rights obligations it undertook in joining the body and urged the Kremlin to reopen peace talks in Chechnya. The Assembly also set up a... MORE

Kyrgyzstan expects to join the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan customs union at a summit meeting in Moscow March 29, the country's government announced yesterday. The agreement was finalized in Bishkek with Russian deputy prime minister Aleksey Bolshakov. Kyrgyzstan, a potential exporter of electrical power, also agreed to combine... MORE

A leading newspaper reveals the Communist party's plans for political and economic restructuring of Russia