Russian General Gennady Troshev, who was recently appointed overall commander of the federal forces in Chechnya, yesterday ruled out the possibility of peace talks with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. In recent weeks, Maskhadov has called repeatedly for negotiations. Troshev said in a television interview that... MORE

On April 19 the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, has finally removed Yuri Skuratov as the country's prosecutor general. The request to vote, brought by President-elect Vladimir Putin, passed 133 to 10, with 6 abstentions (Russian agencies, April 19). According to Russia's... MORE

From April 17 through 20, tens of thousands of young Moldovans took part in riots and clashes with the police in central Chisinau. The riots were the first in Moldova since the 1989 mass movement against Soviet rule. This time, however, the protests had no... MORE

Earlier this week Russian Defense Ministry officials denied that Defense Minister Igor Sergeev and his Iraqi counterpart, Lieutenant General Sultan Hashim Ahmad, had discussed arms dealings during Ahmad's surprise visit to Moscow last weekend. But it was unclear exactly what the Iraqi defense chief and... MORE

However accurate Izvestia's depiction of Ahmad's visit may have been, there is no question that it came amid continuing tensions between Russia and the United States over policy toward Iraq. Those differences have been manifested most graphically in the seizure by U.S. naval forces in... MORE

The Kremlin may be backing away from attempts to pressure or even shut down critical press--specifically those belonging to the Media-Most group, founded and headed by the tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky. At the same time, other media are receiving heavy-handed treatment from some of Russia's regional... MORE

Some regional governors are reportedly using various heavy-handed tactics against the media, including good old-fashioned censorship. One case involves the newspaper Izvestia, which strongly criticized Saratov Governor Dmitri Ayatskov in the lead story of its April 14 edition. The paper wrote that Ayatskov cares only... MORE

Federal Security Service Director Nikolai Patrushev warned yesterday that the federal forces in Chechnya were dealing with a well-armed and experienced foe which should not be underestimated. At the same time, Russian military command dispatched around 1,500 regular and internal troops to southern Chechnya in... MORE

On April 14-19, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in an overdue effort to clarify the Clinton administration's policy in Central Asia. Adverse political trends, currently in progress, are having an impact on the independence of Central Asian countries, and... MORE

Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin enjoyed a triumphant entry onto to the world stage this week, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair ensured that the Russian leader got virtually everything in London he could have wanted on a maiden visit to the West, and without having... MORE