Speculation continued to build yesterday over Russian President Vladimir Putin's call, made a day earlier during a visit to Rome, for the United States, NATO, Europe and Russia to work together to deploy a missile defense system for Europe. Commentators noted that Putin's proposal contained... MORE

The power struggle in Crimea has escalated to the point that on May 24 the Crimean parliament voted to dismiss the government of Premier Serhy Kunitsyn. Parliament chairman Leonid Hrach, the leader of the Crimean branch of the Ukrainian Communist Party, orchestrated the motion, which... MORE

The list of international criminal charges against embattled ex-Ukrainian Premier Pavlo Lazarenko has grown longer. Previously Lazarenko faced accusations of money laundering in Switzerland and Antigua, and large-scale embezzlement and abuse of power in Ukraine. Now he faces more and graver charges: murder in Ukraine... MORE

Fresh from two days of polite, if largely unproductive talks with U.S. President Bill Clinton in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Rome yesterday for a round of consultations with Italian political and business leaders. Russian sources had underscored prior to his arrival the... MORE

The past week saw a controversy over charges that several regional leaders put pressure on State Duma deputies in an effort to influence the way they voted on legislation affecting the status of the governors. These charges were first voiced by Aleksandr Kotenkov, the president's... MORE

The thaw at high altitudes in the Caucasus is again exposing Georgia to a flood of Russian accusations that it condones cross-border movements in both directions by Chechen rebels and other "international terrorists." When Moscow took to threatening "preventive strikes" against Afghanistan, it simultaneously began... MORE

On May 19, President Robert Kocharian ratified a law canceling the privatization of Armenia's electricity distribution sector. Passed by the National Assembly on April 25th, the law removed Armenia's electricity distribution system from the government's 1998-2000 privatization program, thereby effectively annulling tenders that the government... MORE

As had been expected, this weekend's Russian-U.S. summit meeting in Moscow yielded two arms control agreements of some potential significance. It failed, however, to produce any breakthrough on the key set of issues which have most sharply divided Russia and the United States in recent... MORE

The issues of human rights and democratic principles were clearly on the backburner during yesterday's summit meeting between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin--at least judging by Clinton's public statements. During the brief joint press conference given by the two leaders following... MORE

The central banks of Belarus and Russia announced in mid-May that several steps had been taken in moving forward on a single currency to be in place by 2005 (Reuters, May 15). This action was envisioned by the treaty signed in late 1999 by Belarusan... MORE