Boris Yeltsin's key aide Oleg Lobov received more than $5 million from the Japanese radical sect AUM in February 1992, the French daily Info Matinreported April 24. The paper said that the Russian Security Council chief had thus agreed to help the Japanese group find... MORE

Not only Duma chairman Ivan Rybkin's bloc but also Prime Minister Chernomyrdin's center-left electoral coalition are using increasingly nationalistic slogans to generate support,Izvestiya reported April 29. The paper noted that Chernomyrdin had twice paid tribute to Stalin's role in the war and that his government... MORE

Former RF finance minister and prominent reformer Boris Fedorov said that the mafia would not be able to exist "if the government wanted to fight it seriously." Unfortunately, he told the February 25 Chelyabinskiy rabochy, "people at the top official positions do not set an... MORE

RF Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai said that Moscow should considering suspending its membership in the International Convention on Refugees so that it could take reprisal measures against neighboring states which allow refugees to flow into Russia, Rossiiskaya gazeta reported April 27. Shakhrai added that... MORE

On April 26, Rossiiskaya gazeta printed the draft of a new presidential decree expanding government control over the media. Supported by Presidential Department chief Sergei Filatov, the decree would create a Federal Agency on State Information Policy to ensure that the government's line gets out.... MORE

Moskovsky komsomolets reported April 26 that Russian Military Intelligence had created a new department to "protect the constitutional regime in the country." The paper said the new group's major task was "to collect relevant information." Saving Money vs. Saving Russia.

RF Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai said that the number of federal territorial units (89) must be reduced in order to "save a whole lot of money," Yekaterinburgskie vedomosti (no. 22) reported. But Tatarstan's President Mintimir Shaimiev told Trud April 26 that the constituent republics... MORE

The first deputy chairman of the council of ministers of Khakhasia, an autonomous region located within the Krasnoyarsk kray in Siberia, told the April 15 Kultura why even loyal nationalities like his own might ultimately seek to leave. "Regions have big obligations to the center.... MORE

Former Gorbachev aide Aleksandr Yakovlev told a recent conference that Russia's latest time of troubles was far from over, Kuranty reported April 21. The reason for that is that lumpen elements always seek to find absolute and immediate solutions. "The contemporary lumpen are ready to... MORE

Speaking at an international seminar devoted to defense conversion, former Russian acting premier Yegor Gaidar startled his audience by saying that investing in Russian defense industries now promises larger profits than does investing in Russia's currently favored energy complex, Rossiiskie vesti reported April 26. Space... MORE