European countries must invest in Russian energy production or they will face shortfalls in their energy needs early in the next century, Boris Yeltsin told an international conference on energy in Moscow June 6, Itar-Tass reported. Earthquake Toll Rises to 1632.

Rescue workers on Sakhalin found three hundred more victims June 6 bringing the number of bodies recovered to 1632, Itar-Tass reported June 7. The final death toll from the May 27 quake is expected to top 2000. Fight over Vetoed Election Law Continues.

Duma speaker Ivan Rybkin suggested linking the law on elections with the law on the composition of the Federation Council in order to force Yeltsin to compromise, Kommersant-Daily reported June 6. Meanwhile, Yeltsin spokesman insisted that the president wanted to sign an election bill as... MORE

Duma speaker Ivan Rybkin said that parliamentary elections could be delayed--such a step would allow legislators to learn their jobs, he said--but only by a vote of the Duma itself, Rossiiskaya gazeta reported June 2. Rybkin, who heads one of the country's two main electoral... MORE

Arguing that Russian parliamentary elections will proceed as scheduled, Central Electoral Commission chairman Nikolai Ryabov told Krasnaya zvezda June 3 that the country's new voting machines would prevent any possible fraud in the counting of votes. He suggested that the only source of fraud would... MORE

Boris Yeltsin's supposedly impromptu remarks--such as his aside on Japan's possible use of aid to the earthquake victims as a negotiating tool--are in fact the result of a careful plan by the president's backers to test Russian attitudes on key issues, Kommersant-Daily reported June 6.... MORE

A senior officer in Russia' Strategic Rocket Forces said that inadequate government funding may leave Russia without a nuclear arsenal by the year 2005, Russian television reported June 5. That is the year that the SS-33 delivery rockets will have outlived their projected useful life.... MORE

The Russian government has provided only 10 percent of the funds necessary to operate the country's schools, the education ministry told Sovetskaya Rossiya June 6. As a result, many schools throughout the country lack heat, water, or even electricity. Next week, on June 12, scholars... MORE

Russian Journalist Union chairman Pavel Gutionov told Segodnya June 2 that Moscow does not meet international human rights standards and that, were it able to join the Council of Europe, Russia would face severe fines for its shortcomings. Gutionov said that his group would issue... MORE

The daily Kuranty suspended publication June 5, only a week after Nezavisimaya gazeta did the same. Both papers faced mounting debts and mounting costs: paper prices shot up 70 percent during the last week of May alone. The difficulties of these two independent papers also... MORE