Boris Yeltsin has signed Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Lebed's request for retirement, presidential spokesman Sergei Medvedev told Itar-Tass June 14. Although defense minister Pavel Grachev had accepted the resignation of the controversial commander of Russia's 14th Army in Moldova's Transdniestr region with unseemly haste last week,... MORE

Col. Gen. Boris Gromov, who is currently an aide at the foreign ministry while in "exile" from the defense ministry, told Podmoskovnye izvestiya June 9 that his difficulties with defense minister Pavel Grachev arose from Gromov's refusal to participate in the October 1993 assault on... MORE

In his June 9 Podmoskovnye izvestiya interview, Col. Gen. Boris Gromov also said that Russia's strategic nuclear forces are "the only reason and last argument for our great power status." But he said that that factor could be "nullified" by the implementation of the START-I... MORE

The cash crunch in the military has forced the army to stop spending money on arms purchases and research in order to be able to feed its troops, Duma defense committee chairman Aleksandr Piskunov told Krasnaya zvezda June 10. The government has failed to provide... MORE

The Federation Council failed to adopt the Duma election bill compromise June 14, Moscow's Mayak radio reported. Council speaker Vladimir Shumeiko expressed confidence that the parliament's upper house would ultimately approve the measure and allow elections to proceed on time. Ostankino television on June 13... MORE

A congress of Russian youth organizations will meet June 23 at the offices of Yeltsin's presidential administration, Moskovsky komsomolets reported. More than 1000 delegates are expected. The slogan of the new group is "Russia Was, Is, and Always Will Be." In yet another recollection from... MORE

Nationalist Yuri Skokov will convene a special congress June 16 to establish a Union of Russia's Peoples, Segodnya reported June 14. The paper said that Skokov's Congress of Russian Communities will form the core of this new body. Among its leaders is now retired Lt.... MORE

Nikolai Uporov, the chief of the Moscow regional administration for fighting organized crime, told Ekho radio June 13 that native Muscovites dominated 20 of the 34 organized major criminal groups in the Russian capital, that seven were dominated by Russians from other regions, and that... MORE

The shoot-out between Federal Security Service officers and Moscow's interior ministry forces last week was not a minor incident but rather marked the beginning of a major war between the two security services, Moskovskie novosti (no. 40) reported. The weekly said that the interior ministry... MORE

A Federal Security Service press spokesman told Moscow television June 14 that his organization had foiled a CIA effort to obtain information about Russian nuclear submarines. The FSS had successfully turned the man into a double agent, the spokesman said, allowing Moscow to feed the... MORE