In order to allowthe Russian delegation to the talks to meet with President BorisYeltsin, the talks in Grozny will now resume on June 28, ratherthan today as had been announced, Itar-Tass reported June 27.Despite the delay, Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdinsaid he was encouraged by... MORE

All signson June 26 pointed to a resolution of the conflict between theDuma and the Russian government before the July 1 vote of confidence.On that date, a special Duma commission which includes representativesof all political groups met to consider the situation, and Yeltsinhimself reiterated his... MORE

US Deputy Secretary of StateStrobe Talbott relayed a claim by Russian officials that FredCuny is still alive and is being held by the Chechens, his familysaid at a Washington press conference June 26. Russian officialshave often made such claims in the past but provided no... MORE

Thetwo premiers signed agreements to extend their cooperation inthe military-technical area, Russian radio reported June 27. Earlier,the two had signed accords intended to increase trade and to builda bridge between the two countries. Such increased cooperationbetween Moscow and Beijing is not universally popular in Russia.In... MORE

If parliamentary elections areheld later this year, the communists and nationalists are likelyto do well, and the democrats very poorly, an experts group fromthe Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs told IzvestiyaJune 23. The communists and their agrarian allies would collectabout 120 of the seats,... MORE

An articlein the June 24 Segodnya suggested that Federal Border Guardschief, Gen. Andrei Nikolayev, might be made the scapegoat forthe Budennovsk hostage-taking disaster. The paper stressed, however,that under existing Russian legislation he and his men were notresponsible for guarding the internal Chechen-Russian border.Nikolayev himself recently... MORE

TheMoscow representative of Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev andthe head of the Moscow office of the Chechen news agency remainunder arrest in the Russian capital, Moscow's Echo radio reportedJune 25. Neither has been allowed to see a lawyer, relatives toldthe radio; and the Dudayev representative Khamad... MORE

Shamil Basayev's suggestionon NTV June 26 that he had shown the way for future Chechen militaryactions by his hostage-taking in Budennovsk only increases Russianfears that more terrorist actions are in prospect. The chairmanof the Duma committee on Chechnya, Stanislav Govorukhin, toldVechernyaya Moskva June 23 that... MORE

Boris Yeltsin hassigned off on the statute of the Federal Security Service, Segodnyareported June 24. Under its term, the FSS is to have a staffof 76,000 and is to fight terrorism, organized crime and foreignintelligence operations on Russian soil. But one thing it hasnot done... MORE

BorisYeltsin's decision to help Stavropol oblast recover from the Budennovskcrisis by giving that region special tax breaks rather than directaid has infuriated other regions, Kommersant-Daily reportedJune 24. Not only were they outraged by the fact that one regionwas being singled out for benefits that many... MORE