Ingushetian President Ruslan Aushev and North Ossetian President Aleksandr Dzasokhov held emergency talks in the Stavropol Krai town of Essentuki on January 16, during which they signed an agreement to eliminate the consequences of the Ossetian-Ingushetian conflict. The talks were brokered by Viktor Kazantsev, President... MORE

On January 13 Lithuania commemorated, as Latvia will on the 20th, the bloodbaths perpetrated by Soviet troops against peaceful pro-independence demonstrators in 1991. Estonia escaped such violence, owing mainly to confusion in Moscow but also in part to the fact that the Soviet general in... MORE

According to Azerbaijan's statistical authorities, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) rose 11.3 percent in 2000 (Trend News Agency, January 2). This represents an acceleration on the already torrid 7.4 percent growth reported for 1999, not to mention the 10 percent increase registered in 1998.... MORE

Pavel Borodin, former Kremlin property manager and current state secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union, was detained at New York's Kennedy airport on a Swiss arrest warrant for alleged money laundering. According to Russian agencies, Borodin will be arraigned in a Manhattan court today, and a... MORE

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov today summoned James Collins, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, and officially demanded that Borodin be freed "immediately and unconditionally." For his part, Belarusan President Alyaksandr Lukashenka called Borodin's arrest "an extremely unfriendly act by the United States in relation to... MORE

With only days remaining before U.S. President-elect George W. Bush's inauguration, Moscow moved this week to solidify its relations with France, a key European country which, like Russia, has had sometimes tense diplomatic relations with Washington. Efforts by these two countries to sustain a warming... MORE

On January 16-17 in Moscow, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov reviewed the implementation of the Union state's programs last year and the outlook for 2001. Lukashenka sought, furthermore, assurances of the Kremlin's support ahead of... MORE

Russia and Japan continued their diplomatic dance around the Kuril Islands territorial issue yesterday, as talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries produced an abundance of friendly rhetoric but little in the way of substantive movement. The talks may have been a disappointment... MORE

Last week saw the resumption, in a new and sharper form, of the debate over the desirability of "rationalizing" Russia's eighty-nine republics and regions ("federal subjects") and combining them into larger units. This is the second time since Vladimir Putin became president that the federal... MORE

Ukrainian Deputy Premier for Energy Yulia Tymoshenko's struggle for survival in government seems close to an end. From the beginning of her government career, Tymoshenko has been a hostage to her past. The private energy company she used to head, United Energy Systems of Ukraine,... MORE