Federal forces in Chechnya continued to carry out special operations this week aimed at destroying rebel bases and tracking down persons directly involved in "illegal armed formations." According to the Russian military, its forces captured several rebels in the Gudermes region belonging to the group... MORE

With an energy crisis deepening and teachers striking to protest wage arrears, deputies of Primorsky krai's Duma are considering calling for the region's governor, Yevgeny Nazdratenko, to step down or voting no-confidence in him. Yuri Rybalkin, head of the regional Duma's economics committee will take... MORE

On November 20-22, the self-styled foreign affairs ministers of Transdniester, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Karabakh met in Transdniester's city of Tiraspol under Russian military protection. The unprecedented event appeared timed to the OSCE's November 27-28 annual conference of foreign affairs ministers and to the December... MORE

On November 27-28, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka carried out a comprehensive reshuffle at the top of the Belarusan KGB (still so named), the Security Council, and the Internal and Foreign Affairs Ministries. Lukashenka ensured ample publicity for the changes, except for one detail: Most of the... MORE

Moscow and Tokyo seemed to have put their military relations back on an even keel this week as the two sides sought, during a visit to Japan by Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev, to put a recent military espionage scandal behind them. Sergeev's visit to... MORE

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov yesterday denied persistent rumors that President Vladimir Putin is planning to fire either his entire cabinet or at least individual cabinet members. Kasyanov said that he and the cabinet were continuing their "usual constructive work" with the head of state. The... MORE

The latest rumors of an impending cabinet shake-up are part of more generalized frenzy of rumors concerning the fate of top officials. Sergei Shoigu, the emergency situations minister and de facto head of Unity, the pro-Putin political party, is rumored to be in political trouble,... MORE

Ahead of the December 1 summit of the CIS, the pro-Western GUUAM countries--Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova--are acting as a group outside the CIS to protect their imperiled independence. GUUAM's coordinated policy was especially in evidence at the annual conference of the Organization for... MORE

A meeting of Western foreign ministers which many had thought would be dominated by issues related to Yugoslavia--and possibly also by European irritation over a perceived niggardliness on the part of Washington--instead wound up with Russia on the hot seat for its continued military operations... MORE

The State Council of the Russia Federation, President Vladimir Putin's new creation, met for the first time on November 22 (Russian agencies, November 22). This was a significant occasion. Putin agreed to create the State Council last summer, after he had succeeded in amending the... MORE