The past week saw a new phase in relations between the Kremlin and Russia's regional governors. On October 25, opponents of President Vladimir Putin's centralizing policies suffered an apparent setback when the Legislative Committee of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament,... MORE

Moscow, it would seem from the signals given during Defense Minister Igor Sergeev's visit to Tajikistan, considers itself justified to intervene more actively and openly in Afghanistan (see the Monitor, October 30). Russia and Iran are acting jointly to rescue their Afghan military clients from... MORE

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's October 27 visit to Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials produced little in the way of sensation, either with regard to rhetoric or to the agreements reached. Instead, the discussions appeared to be shaped by the... MORE

At least eight people were killed yesterday when a bomb exploded in the Chechen village of Chiri-Yurt, located thirty kilometers south of Djohar [Grozny], the Chechen capital. The Interfax news agency quoted unnamed law enforcement officials as saying that the blast took place in the... MORE

Defense ministers of eight CIS member countries met on October 26-27 in Dushanbe. Moldova, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan did not attend. Ukraine and Azerbaijan attended as observers and limited their participation to a few agenda items of interest to them. The military delegations of Russia,... MORE

Kyiv has taken the offensive against the Russian media in Ukraine. On October 6, Ukraine's State Committee for Information Policy warned those Ukrainian print media which have parent Moscow-based publications to either "bring their activities in line with their state registration certificates" within a month... MORE

The operation to recover the bodies of crewmen from the lost Russian submarine Kursk, believed by many to have been undertaken by the Kremlin to make up for its mismanagement of the original disaster, appeared yesterday only have focused attention once again on the government's... MORE

Long-deadlocked peace treaty negotiations between Russia and Japan resumed this week and appeared to produce some small but unexpected steps by Moscow to accommodate Tokyo. The October 23-24 talks--over which Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Losyukov and his Japanese counterpart Ryozo Kato presided--marked the first... MORE

President Vladimir Putin has issued another warning to Russia's powerful oligarchs. In an interview published yesterday in the French newspaper Le Figaro, Putin said that the state had a "club" it had only brandished, but would not hesitate to use if necessary. His warning came... MORE

The Russian air force said that it conducted a series of bombing raids on what it said were positions of Chechen rebel fighters trying to enter Ingushetia from Georgia. According Russia's Border Guards Service, a unit of up to sixty rebels sustained heavy losses. A... MORE