Moscow found itself pulled deeper into Yugoslavia's intensifying domestic political struggles this week as a delegation of Serbian opposition leaders visited the Russian capital. But the Russian Foreign Ministry's standoffish approach to the visit appeared to signal that the Russian government is in no hurry... MORE

The struggle for power which has convulsed Armenia in recent months has gone hand in hand with a rift between rival political camps over foreign policy. President Robert Kocharian and Foreign Affairs Minister Vardan Oskanian appeared to strive for a balanced course between Russia and... MORE

At the height of the power struggle in Yerevan, Armenia's Foreign Affairs Ministry--whose head, Vardan Oskanian, took the president's side--revitalized the concept of "complementarity" in its foreign policy. The concept implies an effort to pull out of one-sided reliance on Russia and avoid isolation, by... MORE

Monday's much-anticipated summit meeting between leaders of Russia and the European Union appeared to produce much in the way of friendly rhetoric, but it was unclear whether the one-day talks in Moscow had actually moved the two sides closer in substantive terms on any of... MORE

The State Duma today will consider President Vladimir Putin's three draft laws aimed at strengthening the presidential "vertical" of power over the regions. One would allow the president to remove regional heads and dissolve regional parliaments who or which violated federal law. A second would... MORE

The past week has seen the first indications that President Vladimir Putin's attack on Russia's regional leaders is beginning to bog down. And, while the governors are still trying to strike a submissive pose, there are unmistakable signs of resistance from regional elites. Putin continued... MORE

Lieutenant-General Valery Kostenko, commander of Belarusan air defense forces, and an accompanying military delegation conferred in Russia's Kaliningrad Region on May 26-28 with General Anatoly Kornukov and Admiral Vladimir Yermolov, commanders, respectively, of Russia's air defense forces and of Russian naval, land and air forces... MORE

Moscow's intensified efforts to increase revenues from foreign arms sales have reportedly met with considerable success over the past several months. That, at least, was the message which Ilya Klebanov, the Russian deputy prime minister who oversees the country's defense industrial sector, conveyed last week.... MORE

Isa Zainutdinov, a suspect in the bombing of an apartment building in Buinaksk last September 4, which killed sixty-two people, has reportedly confessed to carrying out the crime. According to Russian law enforcement officials, Zainutdinov said under questioning that he and his co-conspirators carried out... MORE

The North Atlantic Council and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council held back-to-back meetings at the foreign affairs minister level on May 24-25 in Florence, Italy. The Baltic states' quest for NATO membership figured prominently on the agenda of both events. The meetings reviewed the first annual... MORE