Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky traveled to Paris this week for a presentation of his book, Nezhelatelny Svidetel (Undesirable Witness). During the presentation, Babitsky put forward his views on the war in Chechnya, which he said amounted to ongoing "genocide." He said he had no... MORE

President Saparmurat Turkmenbashi Niazov has conducted a second round of his purge of Turkmenistan's power structures. If the first round in early March targeted the National Security Committee (NSC, the main intelligence agency), the second round in mid-March has hit both the NSC and the... MORE

Yuly Rybakov, a leader of the Liberal Russia movement, which includes a number of veteran human rights activists and is co-chaired by the self-exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who also finances it, claimed earlier this week that members of the movement had been assaulted and that... MORE

An article recently published in the New York Times has created something of a stir in Russia. The article concerned Andrei Samorodov, a former Russian army airborne communications specialist, who claims that in November 1999, at the start of the ongoing military campaign in Chechnya,... MORE

Ten European countries, situated between the Baltic and the Black Seas and aspiring to join NATO, will hold a summit meeting on March 25-26 in Bucharest, Romania. Collectively known as the Vilnius Ten after the venue of the group's founding conference, these countries are pooling... MORE

On March 15, Ukrainian parliamentary deputy Oleksandr Yelyashkevych called a press conference to say that the country's governing elite may be resorting to dirty tactics to win in the upcoming Verkhovna Rada elections. An employee of President Leonid Kuchma's administration, who preferred to remain anonymous,... MORE

Four political forces running in the nationwide constituency to fill 225 seats in Ukraine's 450-member legislature (Verkhovna Rada) are sure to clear the 4-percent barrier in next Saturday's vote. Other seats are to be filled from single-seat constituencies. About five more blocs and parties have... MORE

Russia's longstanding dispute with Japan over control of the four South Kuril Islands was back in the headlines this month, as domestic developments in both countries dealt a serious blow to negotiations aimed at resolving the territorial row. The latest deadlock demonstrated anew just how... MORE

As recent events have made clear, however, the awkwardness in Russian-Japanese relations was only beginning. Ties between the two countries took another hit earlier this year when a powerful Japanese lawmaker, Muneo Suzuki, became embroiled in a series of scandals that have rocked the Koizumi... MORE

Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Vladimir Voronin of Moldova held an unprecedented trilateral meeting on March 17 in Odessa. Initiated by the Kremlin, apparently as a "Western CIS" counterpart to meetings of Central Asia's CIS countries, the Odessa meeting was... MORE