Meeting near Samara last week, Russian oil companies from giant Lukoil to the smallest independents agreed to form a trade association to lobby the government and to coordinate their policies, Kommersant-Daily reported June 1. The new group will formalize what is already perhaps the strongest... MORE

Representatives from 30 of Russia's regions met in Astrakhan last week to talk about both improving stability in their home areas, and about regulating their relations with Moscow, Delovoy mir reported May 31. The paper indicated that the meeting was dominated by the eight regional... MORE

The Russian parliament is increasingly dominated by its professional staff, Utro Rossii reported in its May 25-31 issue. Every member has at least five paid aides, every faction 12 to 15, and every committee 15 to 17. As a result these people, more than the... MORE

Because Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev has so often done the unexpected--his opera bouffe speech at Stockholm in December 1992 and his sudden announcement in December 1994 that he would not sign the PFP accord, among others--NATO protocol officers kept the press out of the... MORE

Russian embassies abroad are now required to subscribe to the government paper Rossiiskaya gazeta, Moskovsky komsomolets reported June 1. But this paper may not be the best source of news. Obshchaya gazeta (no. 22) notes that this government publication now must regularly defend itself in... MORE

The Russian army has always had more generals per thousand soldiers than most militaries; now because the army is shrinking, that relationship is becoming even more unbalanced. As of April 1, there were 1700 generals in the army, Argumenty i fakty (no. 22) reported. Since... MORE

The Israeli embassy will soon protest anti-Semitic actions by the local authorities in the Jewish Autonomous District in the Russian Far East, Segodnya reported June 1. There, the authorities--who reflect the Russian majority and the activism of the Cossacks--have sought to block the activities of... MORE

Commentator Andrei Nuikin wrote in the June 1 Kuranty that fascism now threatens Russia as never before. His comments echo other writers. Two leading political scientists have concluded that the fascists will take power in Moscow in 2012, Kommersant-Daily reported May 24. And the May... MORE

Russian sociologist Tatyana Kuznetsova told Segodnya June 1 that virtually all polls published in the Russian media are methodologically flawed and that poll numbers should be treated with extreme skepticism. Estonian President: We Want To Join NATO.

In a June 1 Izvestiya interview, Estonian president Lennart Meri said that Estonia wants NATO membership, a step he said would not be "against Moscow's interests." In other comments, Meri said that the border dispute between Moscow and Tallinn must be resolved. In the last... MORE