At a briefing hosted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Washington DC on October 6, Moldovan Prime Minister Dumitru Braghis announced that Moldova plans, within the next several weeks, to submit to its parliament a proposal to privatize six large state-owned wineries and the Chisinau... MORE

Speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be facing increasing resistance from military commanders on the thorny issue of military reform appeared to get some corroboration last week when a Russian defense news agency said that senior officers had dug in their heels on the... MORE

One of the main battles in the war between the federal Center and the regional elite is near its end. It involves the decision by the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan to move up the republic's presidential elections from March 2001 to December... MORE

Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus, Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan, Askar Akaev of Kyrgyzstan and Imomali Rahmonov of Tajikistan met yesterday in Astana to sign the Founding Treaty of the "Eurasian Economic Community" (EAEC). The five countries' prime ministers had approved a... MORE

On September 22, the press service of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claimed, somewhat sensationally, that the SBU had foiled a conspiracy coup by communist-oriented radicals. The special services said that the conspirators, operating from three Ukrainian regions, were preparing terrorist actions both in... MORE

Although the two principles involved--Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee--hailed the results of last week's long-awaited Indian-Russian summit in New Delhi, Russian newspaper commentaries have not been quite so universally glowing in their assessments of the event. Indeed, some Russian... MORE

Moscow's crime rate, according to statistics published this week, has skyrocketed in 2000. The total number of crimes registered in the first eight months of this year was 43.4 percent higher than the number committed during the same period in 1999. Likewise, the number of... MORE

Kremlin "property manager" Vladimir Kozhin says that the presidential administration is ready to discuss privatizing the lion's share of its multibillion-dollar property empire. Speaking to the U.S.-Russia Investment Symposium (which was organized by Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Britain's Financial Times... MORE

The Mabetex scandal has also splashed mud on former President Boris Yeltsin and members of his family. Last year, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera claimed that Mabetex chief Bahgjet Pacolli had told Swiss investigators that he had provided more than US$1 million to President... MORE

Prime Ministers Mikhail Kasyanov of Russia, Uladzimir Yarmoshin of Belarus, Kasymzhomart Tokaev of Kazakhstan, Amangeldy Muraliev of Kyrgyzstan, and Okil Okilov of Tajikistan approved on October 6 the founding documents of a "Eurasian Economic Community" (EAEC)--a new organization is to be created "on the basis... MORE