Kommersant-Daily reported June 6 that a classified ad in the New York Times offering to sell a Russian "Buran" space shuttle was probably a hoax. But the paper said it might reflect an effort by Russian space officials to test the waters and to see... MORE

The Russian army on June 5 advanced beyond Vedeno, the Chechen headquarters that fell to Moscow June 4. Russian television showed the Russian flag flying over the city, and Russian military authorities said that 316 Chechen fighters had died defending the city but that only... MORE

An unnamed Russian foreign ministry official told Interfax June 5 that Moscow has "not yet worked out its position" on NATO's recent formation of a rapid deployment force, but foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev clearly indicated that Moscow was unhappy about it. Although he said that... MORE

The death toll from the May 27 earthquake on Sakhalin continued to rise June 5 toward 2000, Interfax reported. Russian deputy premier Oleg Soskovets told Moscow's Ekho radio that rebuilding would cost more than $100 million. Some of this money will come from Russia's oil... MORE

In anticipation of a long guerrilla war in Chechnya and the possible spread of this conflict into neighboring Daghestan, Ingushetiya and North Ossetia, the Russian interior ministry has established a special anti-guerrilla force in Grozny, the Vladikavkaz newspaper Severnaya Ossetiya reported May 17. According to... MORE

Duma speaker Ivan Rybkin's electoral bloc--the left of center counterpart to Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin's right of center "Russia is Our Home"--is gaining adherents but only at the cost of its ideological definition, Segodnya reported June 3. The paper noted that the Federation of Independent Trade... MORE

A poll of residents in the Russian capital show that only 39 percent think that the upcoming parliamentary elections are "rather" or "very" important, Kuranty reported June 3. Expert opinion seems to be on their side: Academician Georgy Shakhnazarov, a longtime commentator on political life... MORE

The August 6 elections for governor of Sverdlovsk may not take place, Segodnya reported June 3. A local court has thrown out the local election regulations on the basis of a suit by Aleksey Strakhov, current Moscow governor there. Yeltsin's willingness to allow gubernatorial elections... MORE

At a meeting with visiting Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev said that Iraqi progress on human rights should lead the UN to ease or even lift the sanctions it had imposed on Baghdad, Interfax reported June 5. Were the... MORE

Russia's Northern Fleet is operating with only 78 percent of the men it needs, Na strazhe Zapolyarnya reported May 31. Moreover, the failure of the government to pay the fleet what has been budgeted cramps its operations, its commander Admiral Oleg Yerofeyev told the paper.... MORE