Citing technical defects in a Federation Council request for a review of the constitutionality of Yeltsin's intervention in Chechnya, the country's Constitutional Court refused to take up the case. Moskovskie novosti (no. 32) said that the justices had concluded they could not rule on an... MORE

Moskovskie novosti (no. 32) reported the opening of a Chechen Information Center in Cracow. The paper said that the small center was headed by two Dudayev loyalists, Ali Ampukayev and Chingiz Zubayrayev. The two told the paper that Polish youth want to do for the... MORE

Historian Yuri Afanasyev and former Moscow News editor Len Karpinsky argue that privatization today, just like privatization at the end of the tsarist period, may not be enough to overcome the "traditionalism" of Russian society, Moskovskie novosti

Ever more often, Russian merchants are selling pirated copies of Western video tapes and computer programs, the May 9 Kommersant and the April Stolitsa reported. The two publications found that often there are more pirated items in a shop than legitimately produced ones. Moscow Banks... MORE

For the last year, Moscow banks have stopped increasing their share of the country's total bank-held assets, Kommersant-daily reported May 4-5. Seeking to increase their share from its current level of 60 to 70 percent , the Moscow banks are buying up regional ones. In... MORE

The ruble's real purchasing power is likely to stabilize and then rise, Birzhevskie vedomosti (no. 18/19) reported, noting that economic fundamentals were improving. But exchange rate experts said that the ruble would resume its fall against the dollar after the V-E Day euphoria wore off,... MORE

More people may be reading them, but Russian journalists outside of Moscow are in an increasingly "sour" mood, Rossiya (no. 12) reports. A survey of 1300 journalists from the provinces and republics said that the journalists were unhappy about low pay, access to information, and... MORE

Deputy Foreign Minister Albinas Januska told BNS May 11 that "if not only Russian interests will be taken into account, but also the historically and morally right aspirations of Central Europe, NATO expansion will necome inevitable and will necessarily have to encompass the Baltic states."... MORE

President Algirdas Brazauskas turned down the last appeal for clemency from Boris Dekanidze who had been convicted of the October 1993 murder of investigative journalist Vytas Lengyz, BNS reported May 11. His execution would be the sixth since Lithuania regained its independence and is likely... MORE

In a three-hour television talk before the May 14 parliamentary vote and referendum, Aleksandr Lukashenko said he hoped that the Belarusian people would not elect "fascists" like Zenon Poznyak, leader of the Popular Front and one of the architects of Belarusian independence. Lukashenko, often noted... MORE