Fighting continued throughout Chechnya May 31, but Moscow media strove to put an upbeat face on developments there. Krasnaya zvezda said on May 31 that the situation in Chechnya had normalized to such an extent that a normal spring military draft would now take place... MORE

Rescue and clean-up operations in Sakhalin continued May 31 with ever more bodies being uncovered, Interfax reported. Shortly after Russian president Boris Yeltsin said Moscow would not take any aid from foreign countries, First Deputy Premier Oleg Soskovets said that Russia hoped for humanitarian assistance,... MORE

On the day when Moscow signed the Partnership for Peace agreement, the European Union released a document concerning cooperation with Russia. The document stressed that Europe was willing to do far more for Russia if Moscow would reach a political settlement in Chechnya. "If the... MORE

In an obvious appeal to rural Russians, Boris Yeltsin welcomed the imposition of new tariffs on foreign food stuffs May 31, but because such tariffs will mean higher prices for urban consumers, Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov attacked them as "irresponsible and provocative." It is not... MORE

The power of markets rather than the political pressure from Moscow will lead to a reintegration of the former Soviet republics, Vladimir Abarinov wrote in the May 30 Segodnya. Abarinov said that "normal market principles" will do far more than Moscow politicians to draw the... MORE

Voin Rossii (no. 17), the Siberian military district paper, said that contract soldiers have been less than effective. Many terminate their contracts, some have refused to fight in Chechnya, and virtually all are in the army only for the money. Krasnaya zvezda on May 27... MORE

The recently reestablished Kremlin-controlled Chechen interior ministry told Russian television May 31 that crime is increasingly widespread even in the "liberated" regions of Chechnya. Some of the crimes are committed by Russian soldiers; others by a disparate group of people--Chechens and Russians alike--who dress in... MORE

Russia's acting prosecutor general Aleksei Ilyushenko told Russian television that the authorities have failed to capture any of the hired assassins behind many recent killings of businessmen and others in the country, Russian television reported May 31. He said that there had been 1200 premeditated... MORE

Vladimir Polevanov, a senior official in the Presidential Administration, was fired because he formed an anti-Yeltsin political bloc, and not as a result of a staff reduction, Moskovsky komsomolets reported May 31. Polevanov offended both Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Presidential Administration chief Sergei Filatov... MORE

Presidential Administration chief Sergei Filatov has announced plans to reduce the size of government bureaucracies--not the one headed by Yeltsin but rather those in the regions, Mayak radio reported May 30. Filatov said that the regional bureaucracies now have 23 percent more employees than they... MORE