Russia's ambassador to Israel made the surprising assertion last week that Moscow has no major arms deals in the works with Syria. Mikhail Bogdanov told reporters on April 28 that "we have no arms deals, have no evidence there are complete agreements or deals on... MORE

According to Western and Chechen reports, a battle between federal troops and rebels near the Chechen capital of Djohar [Grozny] on April 28 claimed the lives of fourteen Russian servicemen. The agency cited both rebels and Russian troops who participated in the battle as sources... MORE

The bodies of nine Interior Ministry OMON soldiers taken hostage last March were found April 30 in southeastern Chechnya. Based in the Russian city of Perm prior to being dispatched to Chechnya, they were taken prisoner during an attack on a troop column on March... MORE

Armenian President Robert Kocharian yesterday dismissed his powerful rivals, Prime Minister Aram Sarkisian and Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian, from their posts. Kocharian's move caps a series of successful maneuvers by which the embattled president managed to wrest the political initiative and gain the psychological advantage... MORE

Russia and Japan resumed their diplomatic dance over the four disputed Kuril Islands this past weekend as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori traveled to St. Petersburg for an informal summit meeting with Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin. For Mori, the stopover was the first in a... MORE

In April, the Russian statistical agency Goskomstat released new data on Russian economic growth during 1996-1999. In addition to providing quarterly figures on changes in the components of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for this period, this release provides a broader picture of the trends behind... MORE

These data are consistent with the popular view that Russia's 1999 recovery was driven by the ruble's August 1998 collapse, which made imports unaffordable for many Russian households and companies. The Goskomstat data show that import volumes fell 46 percent in the fourth quarter of... MORE

Perhaps the most important barriers to sustaining Russia's industrial growth are to be found in the energy sector, which accounts for about a third of industrial output. The recovery in the electricity and fuels branches lags well behind the rest of industry: Fuels production only... MORE

On April 28 Tbilisi officials clarified the understandings reached last week in Moscow regarding Russian military bases in Georgia. Foreign Affairs Minister Irakly Menagarishvili and Defense Minister Davit Tevzadze presented two demands in Moscow. First, the full evacuation and handover of the Vaziani and Gudauta... MORE

Some three days of high-level talks, accompanied by intense arms control negotiations, may have at last helped to improve the atmospherics in long-troubled relations between Russia and the United States. But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov's visit to the United States, the first by a... MORE