Eight leading figures in former vice president Aleksandr Rutskoi's Derzhava (Great Power) movement and in the electoral bloc around it have accused Rutskoi of turning the movement into a "criminal entity." The group includes Colonel Viktor Alksnis, who told Izvestiya September 3 that Rutskoi has... MORE

Most of the leading Russian parties held pre-election congresses or conferences this weekend, closing the nomination process to the mass media, and making public only the final lists of election candidates. Commenting on these gatherings, the September 1 Komsomolskaya Pravda noted that it is impossible... MORE

Agrarian Party leader Mikhail Lapshin told Russian TV September 3 that he and his party will strongly oppose the Chernomyrdin referendum on land sales. Lapshin told his party leadership's meeting that the basic goal of Russian agriculture ought to be the restoration of agricultural productivity,... MORE

Boris Yeltsin has decided to call a conference of all Russia's democratic forces, because he continues to see himself as the guarantor of reform, Russia's Radio reported September 2. According to presidential aide Georgi Satarov, Yeltsin is attentively watching the parliamentary election process without intervening... MORE

Late on September 2 and early on September 3, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl conferred at Yeltsin's Zavidovo residence outside Moscow, mainly on the conflict in ex-Yugoslavia. Russian officials suggested to the media that Kohl did not object to Yeltsin's proposal... MORE

The spokesman for the Russian military command in Chechnya announced September 3 that Dudayev's forces had opened fire on Russian posts 19 times during the weekend, and that four Russian soldiers were killed during the firefights. A spokesman for Chechen president Jokhar Dudaev told Russia's... MORE

A special session of the Duma willl be convened to discuss "NATO's unleashing war in the Balkans" (meaning the bombardments against Serb positions in Bosnia) and the Russian Foreign Ministry's alleged failure to counter Western policy in ex-Yugoslavia. The requisite number of signatures has now... MORE

Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev told Interfax August 31 that during his upcoming visit to China, he will urge that country's to agree to ban atmospheric nuclear tests. The Kazakh leader will also point to his country's closure of the Semipalatinsk testing range, long used for... MORE

In Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe August 31, Turkmen deputy prime minister and foreign minister Boris Shikhmuradov confirmed the Turkmen government's willingness to host in Ashgabat the next round of inter-Tajik negotiations planned to open September 18. While emphasizing that Turkmenistan takes no sides in the conflict,... MORE

Preliminary returns released August 31 by the Central Electoral Commission show that some 90 percent of registered voters turned out, and 89 percent of these voted yes, in the August 30 referendum on Kazakhstan's new constitution. The document enables President Nursultan Nazarbayev to rule by... MORE