Putin's rise to power provoked expectations, played up in the Russian media, that the Kremlin would adopt a tough stance toward the leaders of Russia's eighty-nine republics and regions. By the middle of May, those expectations were already beginning to be realized. On May 11,... MORE

When Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko's mid-May visit to Washington was initially planned, discussions were expected to concentrate on regaining IMF support for Ukraine's reform efforts. At stake was the resumption of disbursements from the US$2.6 billion Extended Fund Facility, which have been on hold... MORE

Ukraine's ailing energy industry has been an arena of confrontation between several firmly entrenched oligarchic groups and Deputy Premier Yulia Tymoshenko ever since her appointment in January. Early on, she came up with a reform plan to boost payments in Ukraine's debt-burdened energy market, a... MORE

The concern Bronetekhnika Ukrainy (Ukrainian Armor) plans to set up in Jordan a plant which would produce tanks and other armored vehicles for Middle Eastern countries and service those countries' armor inventories. The plan grew out of two recent successes of the Ukrainian producer. In... MORE

In yet another suggestion that Russian foreign policy behavior has taken a secretive turn since President Vladimir Putin's assumption of power, Russian news sources reported on May 13 that Yugoslav Defense Minister Dragoljub Ojdanic had completed a five-day visit to Moscow one day earlier. The... MORE

Officials from the Media-Most group yesterday charged that the Russian authorities and state-controlled media used fabricated evidence in trying to show that Media-Most's security service had illegally eavesdropped on leading politicians, businessmen and the media group's own employees. Armed state security agents raided Media-Most's headquarters... MORE

On May 11, Chechen rebels attacked a column of Russian troops in the Sunzhensk region of Ingushetia, killing nineteen Russian servicemen (Russian agencies, May 11-12). The main danger to the Russian authorities is not that the rebels are attacking federal troop columns with surprising regularity... MORE

The capital of Belarus seems set to turn into a hub of CIS loyalist activities in the period immediately ahead. On May 12 and 15, CIS Executive Committee Chairman Yuri Yarov of Russia made public the results of the talks he had just held with... MORE

In Kyiv yesterday, President Leonid Kuchma and Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk discussed with Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Vilayet Guliev the possibility of Ukraine's participation in a peacekeeping operation in Karabakh. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe envisages such an operation, once Armenia and... MORE

While property manager for the Kremlin, Pavel Borodin was a protector of the rising star Vladimir Putin. The roles, however, have since been reversed, with Borodin now in the role of President Putin's protege as state secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union. Interviewed in the current... MORE