Those who have argued that Russian diplomacy under President Vladimir Putin is moving purposefully to rebuild ties between Moscow and the so-called "rogue" states could point to new evidence this week: a high-profile visit to Moscow by Libyan foreign minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam and an... MORE

Last week saw the culmination of the struggle between the federal center and the regional elites. The July 26 session of the Federation Council brought not the pitched battle between the senators and the president which many had anticipated, but a virtual capitulation on the... MORE

On July 29 in Minsk, the national-democratic opposition held a General Belarusan Congress and adopted an Independence Act. The country's best-known literary authors--including Vasyl Bykau, Ryhor Baradulin, Yanka Brill, Henadz Buravkin and Nil Hylevich--had initiated this congress. Some 1,400 delegates, most of them elected at... MORE

On July 29 in Moscow, Russia and Georgia held the "third" round in what is only the latest series of negotiations on troop withdrawal. The session resulted in some limited progress, though the Russian side promptly raised a question mark over some of that progress.... MORE

A dictum, popularly if apocryphally attributed to Stalin as his rationale for liquidating political opponents, postulated: "No man, no problem." Russian troops on the Georgian border seem to have applied to local circumstances a variant of that dictum. "No village, no problem," the Russian command... MORE

In what is apparently the latest manifestation of continuing tensions within the Russian military leadership, reports yesterday said that President Vladimir Putin had signed a decree dismissing six generals serving in top Defense Ministry posts. Western accounts connected the firings to the well-publicized row which... MORE

According to several newspaper reports today, Media-Most founder and chief Vladimir Gusinsky cut a deal with the Kremlin to give up NTV, his media holding's flagship television channel. Late last month, the Prosecutor General's Office dropped a criminal case against Gusinsky for the alleged embezzlement... MORE

The Kremlin is reportedly planning to put forward its own candidates in the gubernatorial elections set to take place in several dozen regions this coming autumn. According to a newspaper report, the Kremlin's candidates will for the most part consist of high-ranking officers from the... MORE

On July 30, Umar Pashaev, a close associate of and financial aide to Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, has been killed. Pashaev was shot during a special operation carried out by Russia's Interior Ministry forces at the village of Osktyabrskoe in Chechnya's Kurshaloevskoe region. Pashaev resisted... MORE

On July 25-26 in Ashgabat, Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko negotiated with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niazov and initialed with her counterpart Yelly Gurbanmuradov a mammoth deal on Ukrainian gas purchases from Turkmenistan. With Russia threatening to call in Ukraine's heavy debts and to reduce gas... MORE