Russia's acting and former presidents, Vladimir Putin and Boris Yeltsin, teamed up on February 18 to publicly accuse Latvia of violating the rights of Russians and of persecuting "antifascists." Their accusatory messages were sent the same day to Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, whose office, it... MORE

A six-month-old Latvian parliamentary investigation into a sex scandal turned explosive on February 17 through public statements made by the special commission's chairman, Janis Adamsons. From the parliament's rostrum, Adamsons claimed that witnesses had implicated Prime Minister Andris Skele, Justice Minister Valdis Birkavs, State Revenue... MORE

Analysts in Russia and the West yesterday described February 16's breakthrough meeting between NATO Secretary General George Robertson and top Russian leaders (see the Monitor, February 17) as a sign of Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin's resolve to improve ties with the West. Some suggested... MORE

The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday refused to register Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a State Duma deputy and head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), to participate in the March 26 presidential election. The CEC charged that the ultranationalist leader had failed to declare a... MORE

The Russian military now controls very nearly the entire Vedeno Gorge, which had been the main rebel bastion in southern Chechnya. According to Moscow, the rebels are no longer putting up strong resistance there. According to NTV television, however, federal forces are pacifying the area... MORE

Aleksandr Yevtushenko, Chechen correspondent for a Russian newspaper, claimed in an article published today that Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky is being held in the southern Chechen village of Duba-Yurt (near the Argun Gorge) by rebel field commander Rivan Chitigov. According to Yevtushenko, Chitigov holds... MORE

The International Parliamentary Association in Support of Democracy in Belarus was founded at a conference in Vilnius on February 12-13. With Belarusan opposition leaders participating, and Western diplomats in attendance, the conference resolved to multiply efforts in the international arena to isolate the Belarusan authorities,... MORE

The British Petroleum-Amoco company, operator of the Shah-Deniz project in Azerbaijan, announced on February 16 a plan to export natural gas from that project to Turkey, starting as early as 2002. The plan is a consequence of last year's surprise discovery of a huge deposit... MORE

Russia and the NATO military alliance took a first step toward reconciliation yesterday, as NATO Secretary General George Robertson's visit to Moscow culminated in a joint statement in which both sides pledged to renew their "basic relationship." Yesterday's talks appeared to mark the tentative conclusion... MORE

Hardline Russian military leaders, however, had repeatedly suggested that any reconciliation between Moscow and NATO could come only if NATO met several key Russian conditions. Boiled down, those appeared to involve a Western willingness to accommodate Russian (and Serbian) demands in Kosovo, and a reworking... MORE