After months of haggling, Russian and U.S. negotiators reportedly managed to reach agreement last week on the outlines of a new UN sanctions regime against Iraq. The agreement came after talks in Moscow on March 27-28 led on the Russian side by Yury Fedorov, director... MORE

The commander of Russian forces in Chechnya, Lieutenant General Vladimir Moltenskoi, has signed an order specifying new rules for carrying out special antiguerrilla operations in the breakaway republic. Such operations have frequently been accompanied by allegations of human rights abuses by Russian serviceman--illegal detentions and... MORE

On March 29, Igor Zotov, a deputy chief editor of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, which is majority owned by Boris Berezovsky, received a summons from the Moscow Prosecutor's Office asking him to appear today (April 1) to be charged with libel. The charges are connected to an... MORE

Tens of thousands rallied in Chisinau's central square on March 31 demanding the abdication of Moldova's communist regime within 48 hours, and announcing the start of a nonstop protest in the square. The Christian-Democrat People's Party (CDPP, the former Popular Front) had organized the event,... MORE

Russia's decision to enlist in the Bush administration's war against international terrorism and its more general deferral to the United States on a host of related security issues are indeed moves Washington has welcomed. But this cooperation is apparently not going to affect Moscow's efforts... MORE

The long-awaited tender for the right to broadcast over the airwaves of what was once Boris Berezovsky's TV-6 took place yesterday, and the results surprised no one. The tender was won by Media-Socium, a noncommercial partnership led by former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who now... MORE

A colloquium entitled "Chechnya between Russia and Europe" was held in Paris last weekend. Among those who attended was the press attache of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov and the rector of Grozny University, along with economists, representatives from various human rights organizations and actors.... MORE

Vlad Cubreacov, a leader of the Christian-Democrat People's Party (CDPP, the renamed Popular Front), disappeared on March 21 and is still unaccounted for. Many in Chisinau think of the murdered Kyiv journalist Georgy Gongadze and fear the worst for Cubreacov. He is second only to... MORE

Russia appears to be among the countries left disappointed yesterday by an Israeli government decision that effectively ensured that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will not attend the two-day Arab summit. The summit begins today in Beirut. Although Moscow's reactions to Arafat's absence were not immediately... MORE

Ten countries aspirant to NATO membership--the Vilnius Ten group of countries--held a summit meeting in Bucharest on March 25-26. As anticipated (see the Monitor, March 21), the event focused on the Black Sea direction of NATO's enlargement. With the Baltic states already on a firm... MORE