The administration of president Alyaksandr Lukashenka has broken the internationally mediated dialogue with the opposition parties and the leadership of the forcibly dissolved parliament. That dialogue had been underway since mid-1999 through the good offices of two panels of the Organization for Security and Cooperation... MORE

Armenian President Robert Kocharian had little choice but to approve yesterday the composition of a new cabinet of ministers, in the formation of which he played a figurehead's role and which further strengthens his rival, Prime Minister Aram Sarkisian. The new cabinet expands Sarkisian's political... MORE

Acting President Vladimir Putin has given voters more hints of what his platform for the March 26 election might look like. In an open letter to voters published in several newspapers today, Putin laid out what he sees as Russia's main problems and his government's... MORE

Virtually all of Vladimir Putin's points and pledges, it is worth noting, were made at one time or another by his predecessor Boris Yeltsin. From almost the start of Yeltsin's tenure, for example, the former president repeatedly identified corruption and organized crime as strategic problems... MORE

Lev Chernoy, the one-time reputed king of Russia's aluminum industry and at one time connected with the London-based Trans-World Group (TWG), confirmed in an interview published today that he has sold off his stakes in some of Russia's largest aluminum factories and several related industrial... MORE

Russian newspapers responded in a generally positive fashion last week to Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to host talks in Moscow with NATO Secretary General George Robertson. The February 16 visit appears to have come off only because Putin-backed pragmatists were able to overcome... MORE

However significant the February 16 Russia-NATO talks prove over the longer term, they are apparently not going to ensure any immediate halt to Russian criticism of the Western alliance. That appeared to be clear even during the visit by Ivashov to Switzerland that occurred on... MORE

Roughly four months after suspending lending to Moldova amid escalating political turmoil, the IMF has returned to Chisinau to assess the new government's economic policy objectives and map out the Fund's criteria for a resumption of lending. The negotiations between Prime Minister Dumitru Braghis' newly... MORE

In two days Tajikistan will hold its first parliamentary elections on a multiparty basis. It is the last among the former Union republics to abandon the Soviet-type constitutional setup. A set of twenty-seven constitutional amendments, approved by national referendum last September, not only paved the... MORE

British Foreign Minister Robin Cook wound up two days of talks in Moscow yesterday, consultations which included a ninety-minute meeting with Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin. At a concluding press conference Cook was effusive in his praise of the new Russian leader, as much so... MORE