Speculation that Vladimir Putin will limit significantly the power of Russia's regional leaders continues to circulate through Moscow's political rumor mill. According to a leading weekly magazine, the presidential administration plans to start appointing the heads of regional branches of ministries and other federal agencies--including... MORE

In an interview on May 1, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov called for negotiations with the Kremlin but said that they could not take place without a guarantee from a "third, independent" party. Maskhadov apparently had in mind a third government or an international organization, saying... MORE

On a three-day state visit to Estonia this week, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga analyzed Russia's official attitude toward the three Baltic states in the context of Russia-West relations. That linkage, demonstrating as it does the Baltic wish to belong in the Western world, seems to... MORE

The final list of candidates has been announced for the May 14 St. Petersburg gubernatorial race: Sergei Andreev and Andrei Korchagin, both members of St. Petersburg's legislative assembly; Igor Artemev, leader of the local chapter of Yabloko and a member of the Russian State Duma;... MORE

Controversy continues over the censoring of an article from the April 14 Izvestia which was critical of Saratov Oblast Governor Dmitri Ayatskov. Izvestia accused Igor Nikiforov, the oblast's minister for information and press, of making two changes to the text of the article before it... MORE

According to reports which took time to surface, the April 21 meeting in Tashkent of four Central Asian presidents discussed the possibility of carrying out "preventive" operations against "terrorist bases" in the region. Such operations had also been considered at the Dushanbe meeting of Security... MORE

An April 1 decree by President Islam Karimov further tightened administrative controls over Uzbekistan's highly distorted foreign exchange market. While this may have provided Uzbekistan with some short-term relief from the foreign exchange shortages which plague its economy, it could make these shortages worse in... MORE

For all these problems, Uzbekistan's exchange rate system seems like a paragon of liberalism compared to Turkmenistan's. The Turkmen authorities maintain a fixed exchange rate of US$1 = 5,200 manats, while the premium on black market transactions is estimated at three times the official rate.... MORE

Not all recent economic news from Central Asia is unpleasant, however. As is the case in Russia, economic growth in Kazakhstan appears to have accelerated rapidly in the first quarter of 2000. Kazakhstan is benefiting from higher international commodities prices, better export performance resulting from... MORE

Relations between Russia and India got a boost last week when the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Ivanov, traveled to New Delhi for two days of talks with top Indian officials. The most significant result of the talks was an announcement that Russian... MORE