The chairman of the Duma Security Committee has called for a reexamination of government policy vis-a-vis the privatization of defense firms and other large enterprises of strategic significance. Viktor Ilyukhin also called for formulation of a national program aimed at identifying these strategic enterprises and... MORE

Human rights observance has deteriorated in Russia over the past two years, members of President Boris Yeltsin's human rights commission told a Moscow press conference on Monday. (3) This seems to have been the swan-song of the independent commission, set up by President Yeltsin in... MORE

Gennady Seleznev, speaker of the Russian Duma, confirmed in an interview published this week that the first priority of a Communist president would be to introduce a new and "more Soviet" constitution. (1) Seleznev is a leading member of the Communist Party of the Russian... MORE

1. BBC World Service, February 5 2. Interfax, February 3 3. Interfax, February 4 4. Izvestiya, February 6; Interfax, February 5 5. Reuter, February 5 6. AFP, Interfax, Russian TV, NTV, February 4 and 5 7. Interfax, Russian TV, NTV, February 4 and 5 8.... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin's national security adviser Yuri Baturin and deputy chief of the Russian General Staff Col. General Vyacheslav Zherebtsov have been in Tajikistan since February 1. The two officials are conferring with Tajikistan's leaders and participating in negotiations with the insurgents. They have... MORE

Nikolai Gunkin has been re-elected Ataman of the Semirechye Cossack host in Kazakhstan, the group announced yesterday. Gunkin completed January 27 a three-month term of imprisonment for staging unauthorized Cossack rallies and marches in Almaty. The Semirechye Cossack krug (council) has also decided to reapply... MORE

Tajik president Imomali Rakhmonov yesterday announced certain concessions to two regional warlords who recently turned against his government. Rakhmonov gave in to the latters' demands to dismiss First Deputy Prime Minister Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev (responsible for defense and security), Presidential Chief of Staff Izatullo Khayeyev, and... MORE

At a recent meeting with managers at the country's second largest oil refinery in Mozyr, in southeast Belarus, President Aleksandr Lukashenko said it was time for the country to become a "modern oil state." (9) Toward that end, he said the Russian oil and gas... MORE

In what is being seen as the most serious threat to privatization so far, the office of the Russian procurator general announced yesterday that it will conduct an "intensive" investigation of the privatization of several of Russia's largest industrial enterprises. Those enterprises include Norilsk Nickel... MORE

A record 25,000 to 30,000 people from Grozny and its environs demonstrated in the Chechen capital Sunday, February 4. According to Russian authorities, some 5,000 people from Grozny itself rallied again yesterday for Chechen independence and the withdrawal of Russian troops. The latter demonstration also... MORE