Just as in Soviet times, unpublished rules determine just what privileges various members of the new elite receive, Social Democratic Union leader Pavel Kudyukin told Obshchaya gazeta June 1-7. Such "internal rules," Kudyukin said, exist both in Moscow and in all regions of the country.... MORE

Boris Yeltsin has decreed the creation of a new presidential department to handle petitions from the general republic, Rossiiskaya gazeta reported June 3. This body, with direct antecedents in both Soviet and tsarist times, will also deal with appeals from ethnic Russians living in the... MORE

Foreign Intelligence Service press aide Tatiana Samolis told Segodnya June 6 that the Baltic states should follow the German Constitutional Court's recent decision calling for an end to prosecutions of East German espionage agents and stop persecution of former KGB and other ex-soviet "chekists" living... MORE

Lt. Maksim Yashchenko who surrendered to Chechen forces in January 1995 could be sentenced to death if he is found guilty of "voluntary surrender," Izvestiya reported June 6. The paper said that the officer's men had all reported that Yashchenko's actions had saved their lives.... MORE

The Russian militia arrested some 350 known mafia leaders from Russia, the former Soviet republics, and even from California, who were meeting in Sochi to plan strategy, Delovoy mir reported June 3. But the authorities were forced to release all of them after only three... MORE

Aleksandr Solonik, described by the media as Russia's top hired gun, escaped from prison yet again, Itar-Tass reported June 6. Segodnya reported that day that crime bosses had committed $500,000 to pay for his escape and said that the authorities were now offering a sizable... MORE

Russian prosecutors have charged ten employees of the "Elektropribor" enterprise with stealing radioactive isotopes worth 48 million rubles, Moskovsky komsomolets reported June 6. But a bigger problem may come from uncontrolled dumping of nuclear materials by the Russian military. Kommersant-Daily said June 6 that an... MORE

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation will open a two-man office in the Danish capital later this year to monitor crime in Russia and the former Soviet bloc, BNS reported June 6. While there is little Russian criminal involvement in Denmark itself, that country is... MORE

The Duma is considering draft legislation that would make it easier for Russians to own guns, Segodnya reported June 6. The paper said that the bill now under consideration would also call for increased production of firearms. Because of rising crime, many Russians now keep... MORE

Legislators in the Russian region of Krasnodar called for the reunification of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, Sovetskaya Rossiya reported June 3. The legislators expressed confidence that such a reunification was inevitable. Moscow Registers "New Caucasus" Political Group.