According to preliminary data recently released by the CIS Statistical Committee, key sectors of the Moldovan economy are growing this year following precipitous declines throughout much of the country's post-Soviet transition. In the first quarter of 2000, industrial output grew by 3.3 percent, while the... MORE

After several weeks in which Clinton administration officials in particular appeared determined to dampen expectations regarding this weekend's Russian-U.S. summit meeting, there were hints from both sides yesterday that the Moscow talks could yet produce a surprise or two in the area of arms control.... MORE

One issue which will probably not do much to enhance the hoped for good feelings during this weekend's Moscow talks is a recent Kremlin decision to relax restrictions on the export of Russian nuclear materials and technologies. A senior Russian atomic energy official, Nikolai Ryzhkov,... MORE

Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov yesterday gave the chief prosecutors of Russia's eighty-nine regions one month to bring the laws in their regions in line with federal law, and to take to court regional officials who refused to cooperate in doing so. Ustinov's demarche came... MORE

A newspaper today wrote that if Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov's orders to put regional legislation in line with federal law are followed, Russia could be transformed from a federal into a unitary state within a few months (Kommersant, June 2). On the other hand, it... MORE

Vladimir Gusinsky, founder and head of the Media-Most empire, claimed yesterday that Kremlin administration chief Aleksandr Voloshin tried in essence to bribe him last summer during the walk-up to the December parliamentary elections. Gusinsky confirmed a report in a U.S. newspaper that Voloshin had suggested... MORE

The armed forces of Uzbekistan are Central Asia's strongest, but only in relative terms, and mainly due to the quantitative strength inherited from the Soviet Union. President Islam Karimov recently revealed that he considers his army obsolete and unable to cope with the new challenges... MORE

On the evening of May 30, Sergei Sverev, deputy representative of the Russian government, and Nurseda Khabuseyeva, an aide to Grozny Mayor Supyan Makhchaev, were killed when a remote-control mine blew up their automobile in the Chechen capital. Mayor Makhchaev, who was also in the... MORE

On May 30, Nikolai Koshman, the Russian government's representative in Chechnya, fired his deputy, Bislan Gantemirov, for systematically not appearing for work and other violations of discipline (Russian agencies, May 30). Gantemirov is an almost legendary figure in Chechnya, and few adventurers could brag of... MORE

Russian observers and media have been reacting to the May 28 incident at Moscow's Sheremetevo airport, in which some 100 copies of Amnesty International's human rights report on Chechnya was seized by customs officials for containing "antigovernment, anti-Russian propaganda." The reports were seized from Amnesty... MORE