The Duma has rejected a plan put forward by the reformist "Russia's Choice" party to establish tighter parliamentary oversight on vote counts in the upcoming elections, Itar-Tass reported June 9. As a result, the government's communications security organization, FAPSI, will handle the voting; because of... MORE

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin's "Russia is Our Home" bloc is counting on regional officials who will run as independents to back the bloc in the new parliament, Isvestiya reported June 9. Consequently, even if the bloc receives only 10-15 percent of the vote, it will... MORE

Duma speaker Ivan Rybkin, the leader of the left-of-center political bloc which Yeltsin hoped would be the opposition to Chernomyrdin's party, met with former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev June 9. Neither man said anything of substance after the session, but the fact of the meeting... MORE

Moscow's failure to pay workers in the Strategic Rocket Forces and at nuclear research sites have not yet, but could, undermine security there, officials at both have told Russian media in recent days. Russian television on June 9 featured an SRF commander who said that... MORE

Russian nuclear energy minister Viktor Mikhailov said in London June 9 that Russia would proceed with plans to build a nuclear power plant in Iran, Interfax reported. Such a step now would contradict Moscow's promises at the May 10 summit that Russia would take no... MORE

Russia has delivered two more MIG-29 jets to India, bringing to 61 the total it has sold to New Delhi over the last several years, Krasnaya zvezda reported June 9. The paper said that Russian arms factories would deliver eight more MIGs to India this... MORE

On his first foreign trip since being named the European Union's special envoy for Yugoslavia, former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt met with Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev in Sochi June 10. Kozyrev said that Bildt's visit to him first "shows what an important role... MORE

The deputy director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Col. Gen. Vyacheslav Trubnikov told Argumenty i fakty (no. 23) that ideology continued to be behind the willingness of some Westerners to spy for Moscow. In the past, Trubnikov said, they did it for socialism; now, they... MORE

While on a visit in New Zealand, Russian deputy premier Aleksandr Zaverukha said that Moscow will not import any grain this year. Russia's grain trade chief Oleg Klimov said that the Russian government might never import grain again. But that does not mean that Russians... MORE

As the Russian economy improves, First Deputy Premier Anatoly Chubais told a June 9 press conference, more Russians are bringing money back from abroad to participate in its growth, Interfax reported. In 1994, Russian money accounted for only 10 to 15 percent of investments in... MORE