After submitting both income and property declarations for 1998 and 1999 and a list of 500,000 signatures supporting his candidacy, Vladimir Putin is officially registered as a candidate in the March 26 presidential election (Russian agencies, February 15). The Central Election Committee (CEC) reported the... MORE

In another sign that the Kremlin is trying to exert control over Russia's independent press, Rem Vyakhirev, head of Gazprom, Russia's giant natural gas monopoly, made a veiled threat to use its investments in NTV television to pressure the channel to change its coverage of... MORE

Former State Duma deputy Nadir Khachilaev, who has been in jail while the authorities investigated his alleged criminal activities, will most likely be freed soon. Nadir Khachilaev and his brother Magomed became known throughout Russia in May 1998, when their supporters clashed with the police... MORE

On February 20, Kyrgyzstan is holding its first legislative elections on a multiparty basis. The country is Central Asia's smallest in area and population, the least blessed with mineral resources--apart from its promising, but incompletely prospected gold deposits--and the most vulnerable from a military and... MORE

President Bill Clinton appeared to jump on Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin's election bandwagon this week, saying in an on-line interview with CNN that the Russian leader is a man the United States "can do business with." Clinton also described Putin as "highly intelligent," "highly... MORE

Late last month, an article in the international press alleged irregularities in the National Bank of Ukraine's (NBU) use of International Monetary Fund loans. It stirred, as one might expect, a heated reaction both in Ukraine and abroad (see the Monitor, February 3). More recently,... MORE

The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry's protest notes against Ukrainian state support to the Ukrainian state language (see the Monitor, February 11) was neither a bolt out of the blue, nor is it likely to remain an isolated occurrence. It signals instead a shift in Russian... MORE

After Ukraine's parliamentary center-right majority ousted the leftist leadership on February 1, the legislature physically split (see the Monitor, February 3). Refusing to recognize the ouster, the leftist minority blocked the session hall to prevent the new speaker, Ivan Plyushch, and his deputies from taking... MORE

A 700-strong concentration of Uzbek expatriate militants has been spotted in Tajikistan near the border with Kyrgyzstan. They are led by Juma Namangani, who is also the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). This formation represents a part, possibly the bulk, of the... MORE

Talks between Russia and Japan in Tokyo last week appeared to end inconclusively as Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov refused to commit Moscow either to meet an end-of-year deadline for the signing of a bilateral peace treaty, or to agree to a July date for... MORE