Aside from raising questions related to the mechanics and details of Russia's recently approved military reductions plan (see the Monitor, November 13), decisions on that issue taken at the November 9 Security Council meeting have sharpened speculation in Russia regarding the political calculations which underlay... MORE

The "peace agreement" between Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-Most and its main creditor, the natural gas monopoly Gazprom, has unraveled already. The agreement, signed on November 11 and set to be ratified by a Moscow court today, was essentially nullified this morning when lawyers for Gazprom-Media, the... MORE

The mysterious maneuverings surrounding the abortive "peace agreement" between Gazprom and Media-Most were yet another example of the degree to which high-level politics in Russia remain mired in intrigue. Indeed, various Russian observers over the last twenty-four hours--prior to Gazprom's withdrawal from the "peace agreement"--speculated... MORE

With growing insistence, the Russian government and Gazprom demand control over Ukraine's gas transit system carrying Russian gas to Europe. That system represents Ukraine's largest economic asset by far and just about the only Ukrainian counterleverage to Russian pressures. Moscow now wants a 51-percent stake... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to downsize and restructure the country's armed forces appeared to move forward last week, but announcements on the subject made after a key meeting of the Russian Security Council on November 9 appeared to raise as many questions as they... MORE

The Prosecutor General's Office announced today that it has issued an arrest warrant for Media-Most chief Vladimir Gusinsky and put him on its list of wanted fugitives. Investigator Valery Nikolaev ordered Gusinsky's arrest as a suspect in a case involving large-scale fraud, presumably in connection... MORE

Two Russian servicemen were wounded over the weekend during battles with Chechen rebel units under the command of Shamil Basaev and Khattab in eastern Chechnya. According to an official in the office of Sergei Yastrzhembsky, President Vladimir Putin's point man on Chechnya, fifteen rebel fighters... MORE

Lithuania's new government, headed by Rolandas Paksas, had its program and composition approved by the parliament on November 9 and took office on November 10. The minority government won the vote of confidence by a comfortable margin of 72 to 48, thanks mainly to deals... MORE

A Russian-sponsored mission to recover the bodies of the submarine Kursk's doomed 118-man crew ended this week, having produced few bodies but having yielded what Russian officials say is new evidence that the Russian Oscar class submarine was downed by a collision with a foreign... MORE

Former Kursk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Rutskoi said yesterday that he plans to take the region's new governor, Aleksandr Mikhailov, to court for comments made in an interview published yesterday in the daily newspaper Kommersant. In his interview with Kommersant, Mikhailov, a member of the Communist... MORE