Vladimir Putin's BBC interview was broadcast as tensions between Russia and the West over Chechnya began to heat up anew. At a meeting of EU and Russian diplomats on March 2 in Lisbon, and again at unprecedented three-way EU-US-Russian talks in the same city a... MORE

While Acting President Vladimir Putin remains overwhelmingly favored to win the March 26 presidential election, his campaign headquarters is showing a surprising degree of sensitivity to criticism. On March 4, it released a statement attacking some media for neglecting the "principles of journalistic ethics" and... MORE

The March 4 warning by Acting President Vladimir Putin's campaign team to the media--and specifically the Segodnya newspaper--that it might use "all means available in its arsenal" for an "asymmetrical answer" to alleged "lies," is rather ironic, given that it was supposed to be an... MORE

The North Atlantic Council (NAC) held a session in Kyiv on March 1-2 in its concurrent role as the NATO-Ukraine Commission. Attended by envoys of NATO's nineteen allied countries and by senior officials of partner country Ukraine, the forum set an epoch-making precedent: it was... MORE

Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ivan Plyushch, in their meetings with the NATO envoys, expressed the cabinet's and the new parliamentary majority's commitment to Ukraine-NATO cooperation. These leaders and the chairmen of the Verkhovna Rada's relevant committees seconded Kuchma's view that... MORE

Two factions in the Ukrainian parliament--the Hromada (founded by former Premier Pavlo Lazarenko) and the Peasant Party (led informally by former parliament speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko)--were disbanded on February 29. Neither faction was able to meet the minimum requirement of fourteen members. Both once played a... MORE

The Russian government, not surprisingly, continued its criticism yesterday of U.S. legislation which would penalize Russia and Russian companies if they are judged to be aiding Iranian efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. In remarks made following talks with EU officials in Lisbon, Russian... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry reacted angrily on Wednesday (March 1) to last week's U.S. State Department annual report on human rights around the world. The report had painted a disturbing picture of rights abuses in Russia, focusing attention not only on the conduct of Russian troops... MORE

Several candidates who see themselves as democratic alternatives to the two main candidates in the March 26 presidential election--Acting President Vladimir Putin and Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov--have broached the idea of uniting behind a single democratic candidate. Samara Governor Konstantin Titov and Yevgeny Savostyanov, who... MORE

A unit of Moscow OMON police special forces was ambushed in Djohar, the Chechen capital, yesterday. NTV television reported that twelve were killed and thirty wounded, and that the ambush took place seven kilometers from the center of the capital in the morning, after the... MORE