Russian nationalist Sergei Baburin said his election bloc"Power to the People" would focus on the parliamentaryelections, and was not concerned about setting him up for a runat the presidency, Ostankino television reported July 31. He deniedthat former Soviet premier Nikolai Ryzhkov was in the first... MORE

Moscow mayor YuriLuzhkov's office said the city authorities would stifle any attemptto incite ethnic hatred among the residents of the Russian capital,Interfax reported August 1. Luzhkov's office thus rejected a callby the Moscow regional legislature to prevent the constructionof a mosque and a synagogue on... MORE

TheMuslim Nur bloc will nominate 100 candidates for the parliament,movement leader Khalit Yakhin told Interfax August 1. Yakhin hasfrequently spoken out in favor of support for radical Islamicregimes throughout the world; he said he expected his party towin the 5 percent of the vote needed... MORE

Just beforegoing on its summer recess, the Russian parliament passed a billwhich would give the regions and the parliament rather than theexecutive branch of the Russian government control over the paceand direction of future privatization, Segodnya reportedJuly 29. Meanwhile, and in order to retain his... MORE

In anappeal to the Russian president and prime minister for more funds,the Russian foreign ministry said that it had piled up enormousdebts for basic services, had been unable to pay its staff adequately,and had lost 25 percent of its diplomats over the last three years,Moscow... MORE

The Russian Pacific Fleet has arranged to sell two Soviet-eraaircraft carriers, the Minsk and the Novorossiisk,to South Korea for scrap, Itar-Tass reported August 1. But onthe same day, the news service reported that the Pacific Fleethad commissioned a new nuclear missile submarine which Russiancommanders said... MORE

Forty members of theRussian parliament have signed a petition to convene an extraordinarysession of the Duma to discuss the law on electoral districts,Moscow media reported August 1. Ninety signatures are needed toforce a meeting. The deputies are seeking this session in orderto pass a new... MORE

A meetingof the CIS Interstate Economic Committee failed to reach agreementon a number of key issues nor even to discuss the central oneof creating a payments union, Russian deputy premier Aleksei Bolshakovtold Interfax August 1. Instead, the representatives of the CIScountries told one another that... MORE

Boris Yeltsin and no one else was behind the decision to closethe Human Rights Commission and to reduce its status to a sectionwithin the public comment section of the president's office, formercommission head and human rights activist Sergei Kovalev toldSegodnya August 1. Presidential chief of... MORE

Vladimir Tumanov, the chairman of Russia's ConstitutionalCourt, said that the court had no choice but to back the Russianpresident on his decision to use force because the Russian presidenthad no choice but to use force to prevent Chechnya from seceding,Moscow radio reported August 1. He... MORE