At virtually the same moment that Yeltsin was telling the summit press conference that the fighting was over in Chechnya, Russian forces attacked the Chechen village of Serzhen-Yurt, killing seven and wounding eight more, Moscow radio reported May 10. The Moscow Times said that OSCE... MORE

At a May 11 breakfast, President Clinton met with ten leading Russian politicians who are not members of Yeltsin's regime. Among those invited were communist chief Gennady Zyuganov, former acting prime minister Yegor Gaidar, and reformer Grigory Yavlinsky, all possible future presidential candidates. Pointedly not... MORE

President Clinton's two-day visit to Kiev will be the first state visit by an American president to Ukraine. (Earlier visits by President Bush in August 1991 and Clinton in January 1994 did not have that status.) Clinton will meet with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, whose... MORE

Len Karpinsky and Anatoly Kostyukov argued in Obshchaya gazeta (May 4-10) that the creation of the two new electoral blocs represents Yeltsin's effort to run the parliamentary elections in the old Soviet way. Because both blocs are backed by the government, together they form a... MORE

General Aleksandr Lebed, commander of the 14th Russian Army in Moldova's Transdniestr region, will hold a press conference May 12 to say whether he will accept a defense ministry proposal that he become commander of the Trans-Baikal Military District or will resign from the army,... MORE

Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev said that the Agrarian party, the Communists and Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party were active among Russian forces, but he said that the military's "strict ban" against election activity by active-duty personnel would continue, Moscow radio reported May 10. No "Red-Brown"... MORE

Despite fears that Gennady Zyuganov's communists would link up with Vladimir Zhirinovsky's nationalists, the possibility of such an electoral bloc appears to be fading. Zyuganov told Segodnya May 7 that he could not work with Zhirinovsky because of the latter's "untrustworthy" and "adventurous" approach. Zyuganov... MORE

Boris Yeltsin has signed a law that would restore to Russians personal savings accounts which disappeared during the administrative chaos of 1991-92, Moscow television reported May 10. While the law has a populist appeal, it is unlikely to be implemented: as signed by the Russian... MORE

More than 3,100 young men were identified as draft resisters during January 1995 in the Middle Volga Military District alone, Soldat otechestva said May 4. Citing military district sources, the paper said that only 24% of the men registered for the draft in that region... MORE

Claiming that Tatarstan is "an island of stability" in a sea of troubles, Tatarstan President Mintemir Shaimiev told Kommersant-daily May 7 that the Chechen events "have aroused certain doubts in me" about the path Moscow is taking. He said he and his colleagues were particularly... MORE