The two presidents are meeting in Sochi June 9 to discuss the fate of the Black Sea fleet. Both sides said that they did not expect any major breakthrough at this meeting. As of this writing, no progress has been reported. Moscow is pressing hard... MORE

Russian forces continued to prepare for an assault on the mountains, Moscow radio reported June 8. But Russian commentators continued to suggest that the Chechen opposition was in despair. Russian radio reported that Dudayev's agents were being forced to seek mercenaries in Abkhazia. Russian officials... MORE

Abdulakh Mikitayev, chief of Yeltsin's citizenship office, said Moscow could use economic sanctions against the Baltic states to defend the rights of ethnic Russians living in the Baltic states and elsewhere abroad, Segodnya reported June 8. Speaking at a special conference on this issue, Mikitayev... MORE

Itar-Tass reported this figure June 9. On June 8, Sakhalin governor Igor Fakhrutdinov told Moscow radio that he was not to blame for shortcomings in the relief effort. Instead, the Russian finance ministry was at fault because it had not provided the necessary aid. Fakhrutdinov... MORE

Despite recent upbeat statements by Russian officials, most Russians think the country is headed in the wrong direction, Sovetskaya Rossiya reported June 8. In a recent poll, 70 percent of them said that things were getting worse, and 69 percent said that they believed the... MORE

Despite some recent improvements, the Russian economy is not out of the woods, economics minister Yevgeny Yasin told Moscow radio June 8. Inflation will stay at 5-7 percent a month this year, not the 1 percent Moscow had hoped for. Moreover, the recent rise in... MORE

Not for the first time, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin told Moscow's Echo radio June 7 that he will not run for president in 1996. In other comments, Chernomyrdin said that he was pleased that Yegor Gaidar's Russia's Choice group had practically allied itself with Chernomyrdin's... MORE

Boris Yeltsin has dropped some of his objections to the Russian parliament's election bill and thus ended a standoff with the Duma which began when he vetoed the measure last week, Moscow's Mayak radio reported June 8. Yeltsin agreed to the even split which the... MORE

Duma speaker Ivan Rybkin's left of center political bloc gained support from the Regions of Russia group June 8, Interfax reported. Rybkin said that his group now enjoys support from 25 political groups. But how much this means is unclear: The Regions of Russia group... MORE

The Russian justice ministry has officially registered the Party of Tax Reduction Proponents, Segodnya reported June 8. The paper said that the new party was opposed to all taxes except those on land and natural resources. Drawing its support from new entrepreneurs, the party's leaders... MORE