As the cleanup continued, the death toll from the May 27 earthquake on Sakhalin reached 1197 June 5, Itar-Tass reported. Moscow tried unsuccessfully to limit the political damage from Yeltsin's outburst last week against Japanese aid. On June 3, Yeltsin's spokesman said that the Russian... MORE

On June 2, Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev told Interfax that Moscow opposes replacing the UN operation in Bosnia with a NATO one or changing the mission of UN forces there. He said any such plans would be "very dangerous." And on June 4, Yeltsin... MORE

Moscow has completed the organization of a new 58th Russian Army in the North Caucasus Military District, Ostankino television reported June 1. That new force puts Russian strength there above the limits prescribed by the Conventional Forces in Europe agreement. No Gag Order on Crop... MORE

Russian deputy premier Aleksandr Zaveryukha denied an Interfax report that the Russian security services had classified Russian crop estimates, Moscow radio reported June 2. But his denial--concerning the source of the classification rather than the fact of it--did little to dampen public concern. Segodnya on... MORE

Speaking in Copenhagen June 2, Russian human rights activist Sergei Kovalev said that Chechnya has cost Yeltsin his support among the country's democrats, and has led him to rely on the nationalists instead, various Western papers reported. The big risk for Russia now, Kovalev said,... MORE

Gen. Aleksandr Sterligov's extreme nationalist Russian National Sobor has organized an electoral bloc entitled "For a United Rus," Rossiiskaya gazeta reported June 2. The new group seeks to establish a Russian-dominated empire on the territory of the former Soviet Union. Also last week, the liberal... MORE

In an open letter to Yeltsin, officers of the 14th Russian Army in Moldova's Transdniestr region said they would resign if the army were withdrawn, or its commander Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Lebed were allowed to retire, Interfax reported June 2. Yeltsin now has Lebed's retirement... MORE

The central government gave the city of Moscow an additional $200 million for food but demanded that Mayor Yuri Luzhkov spend it on Russian and not foreign food supplies, Kommersant-Daily reported June 2. At present, Moscow buys more than half of its food from foreign... MORE

More than 2.5 million young Russians are now unemployed, Moscow radio reported June 1, and one-third of all unemployed are between the ages of 16 and 30. The worst places in this regard are Ivanovo, Pskov, Yaroslav, Kirov, Ingushetia, Daghestan, and Kalmykia. Novoye vremya (no.... MORE

The shortcomings of Russian diplomacy have isolated Moscow within the former USSR far more than they have isolated Moscow from the international community, political commentator Vladimir Razuvayev told Segodnya June 2. Indeed, the only "allies" Moscow has left within the CIS are Tajikistan and Belarus.... MORE