The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) found itself in the political wilderness yesterday, when the State Duma voted to take away the KPRF faction's chairmanship of seven Duma committees. The initiative to redistribute the Duma's committee chairmanships, put forward by the pro-Kremlin Unity... MORE

In parallel with the move to end the Communist Party of the Russian Federation's (KPRF) control over committees in the State Duma--which has been the party's main base of operations for more than a decade--an initiative has been put forward to ban the party outright.... MORE

Leonid Hrach, the Crimean Communist leader and speaker of the outgoing Crimean parliament, defied a court-imposed disqualification and took part in the local parliamentary election, held on March 31, simultaneously with Ukrainian general elections. The election is thus legally invalid. Hrach, however, claims to have... MORE

Despite a declaration of victory by U.S. government officials, an agreement signed on March 31 by a top Russian veterinary official and U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow may not, in fact, mark the end of a high-profile trade battle over U.S. poultry exports to Russia. In... MORE

In terms of international security, the South Caucasus is now seeing the United States emerging as a direct regional actor. This is welcomed by Georgia and Azerbaijan. Western Europe is for the most part conspicuous by its absence, its security interests in the region resting... MORE

For the first time since independence, Ukraine's Communists will be only a negligible minority in the country's new parliament (Verkhovna Rada), which is to convene later this month. Judging by the results of this past Sunday's election (March 31), two roughly equal camps will be... MORE

President Vladimir Putin may soon put into practice his idea of reducing the number of Russian regions and Krasnoyarsk Krai, where Putin visited in the middle of March, may become the arena for the first attempt at applying it. On March 28, Krasnoyarsk Governor Aleksandr... MORE

The conflict surrounding the election of Alfred Kokh to represent Leningrad Oblast's legislative assembly in the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, has played itself out. Kokh, the chairman of the Montes Auri investment fund's board of directors who earlier, as head of... MORE

On March 28, marking the first anniversary of his appointment as Russia's defense minister, Sergei Ivanov issued multiple threats against Georgia at a specially convened news conference. His remarks, which also coincided with Ivanov's return from a visit to the United States, sought not only... MORE

Late on the evening of March 29, the Vice Governor of West Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Mykola Shkriblyak was riddled with bullets on the stairs of his home. In the early hours of March 30, he died. His murder will have serious political consequences, he having... MORE