Officialsin Kaliningrad denied a recent Moscow report that they had giventheir approval to the construction of an underground atomic powerplant there, BNS reported August 16. The officials said that thereport, published in the August 5 Rossiiskaya gazeta, waspart of an effort by local energy officials... MORE

TheRussian government has ordered Russian cosmonauts to use theirtelescopes to keep track of activities at military bases and defenseplants around the world in order to improve compliance with armscontrol accords, Moskovsky komsomolets reported August12. Meanwhile, Segodnya reported August 16 that the BoeingCorporation had signed a... MORE

Thirty percent of the 5,000 draftees who arrived in the Trans-VolgaMilitary District are underweight and almost 25 percent of thetotal have criminal records, Saratovskiye vesti reportedJuly 14. Because of both their poor physical condition and theprevalence of criminals, many draftees now have to pay protectionmoney... MORE

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin has not been able to stemthe rising tide of unemployment, the growing polarization of society,and the increasing incidence of venereal disease, alcoholism andcrime, according to commentator Aleksei Frolov writing in Rossiya(no. 26). Frolov suggested that the further criminalizationof Russian society was... MORE

Under the termsof a partial agreement at the Chernomyrdin-Gore commission inJuly, Moscow will increase its sales of shotguns and other smallarms in the United States, Russian radio reported August 16. Russianofficials said they expected to realize about $1 billion fromsuch sales over the next seven... MORE

Russian Orthodox PatriarchAleksii II told Argumenty i fakty this week that Lenin'sbody should be removed from the mausoleum on Red Square and buriedas his family had wanted. Aleksii said that the communists "werenot above using the tradition of revering saintly remains forthe creation of a... MORE

MikhailYegorov, the deputy interior minister in charge of fighting organizedcrime, and Yevgeny Abramov, the deputy responsible for the interiorministry staff, reportedly will resign soon, Kommersant-Dailyreported August 16 citing a leak from the interior ministryas its source. According to the paper, the two are leaving becauseuntil... MORE

The chiefof the interior ministry's anti-drug directorate, Nikolai Osipov,told Segodnya August 16 that his group had closed some250 underground drug processing laboratories in recent years.But he said that the influx of drugs into Russia--particularlyheroin and cocaine which were unknown in Russia in the past--wasincreasing and... MORE

In order to promote the expansion of small businesses in theprivate sector, the Russian government has established a new statecommittee for small businesses, Ostankino reported August 15.Its new chairman, Vyacheslav Prokhorov, said that among the manygood things about small businesses is that unlike major firms,they... MORE

Russian prime ministerViktor Chernomyrdin has signed a legislative package which simultaneously"increases the role of state capital" in the country'slargest oil companies and gives the largest oil firms such asLukoil greater control over oil fields and refineries, Russianradio reported August 17. In related developments, Chernomyrdinreported the... MORE