The choice of a pipeline route from Kazakhstan's giant East Kashagan oilfield is certain to become one of the preeminent issues of Caspian oil politics. East Kashagan, the richest Caspian oilfield discovered to date, is being explored and developed by the multinational Offshore Kazakhstan International... MORE

The past week saw an unprecedented number of terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus. It appears that Chechen rebels carried out these attacks as a means of demonstrating to the world that the resistance movement is not yet quelled. The most lethal of the attacks... MORE

While the blast in Alkhan-Yurt--if it was indeed the work of Chechen rebels--suggests that the rebels are increasingly resorting to indiscriminate terror, a number of observers continue to say that the conflict there has evolved into a protracted and ultimately unwinnable guerrilla war. Yevgeny Kiselev,... MORE

Using tactics reminiscent of 1956 in Hungary, 1968 in Czechoslovakia and 1979 in Afghanistan, the Kremlin would like the Georgian government to request the intervention of Russian troops on Georgian territory. As in those historic cases, Moscow claims to be motivated by the twin goals... MORE

Although economic growth in Lithuania this year lags behind growth in Estonia and Latvia, car sales in Estonia and Latvia are soaring, as consumers once again enjoy the rapid growth in incomes and spending they knew before the August 1998 Russian financial crisis. Although car... MORE

Against the backdrop of Moldova's tumultuous presidential election, the country's government appears to be drawing close to an agreement on a new lending program with the International Monetary Fund. The Fund's board of directors is scheduled to meet on Friday, December 15, at which session... MORE

Investigation of the Kursk submarine disaster took an unexpected turn this week when Norwegian military officials said that Oslo had sent fighter jets to intercept Russian planes over the Barents Sea on August 17 and 18. The Russian aircraft, identified as Ilyushin-38 surveillance planes by... MORE

The State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, today overwhelmingly approved adopting a revised version of the Soviet anthem as the country's national anthem. The draft law reviving Aleksandr Aleksandrov's 1943 music as Russia's national anthem was passed overwhelmingly in three separate readings, or... MORE

Former Aeroflot deputy director Nikolai Glushkov was arrested yesterday on charges of large-scale fraud and jailed in the Federal Security Service's Lefortovo prison in Moscow. The arrest, made on the orders of Deputy Prosecutor General Vasily Kolmogorov, took place while Glushkov was being questioned in... MORE

If Russian troops enter northern Georgia on the pretext of restoring order there, the Clinton administration and the European Union will be in no position to claim to have been surprised. The Kremlin has now virtually disclosed the fact that it is demanding Georgian consent... MORE