In Moscow, not unexpectedly, the reaction to the seizure of the Volgoneft-147 was not a happy one. Aside from the protest and the warning that the vessel's seizure could harm bilateral relations, Russian officials continued to insist that the ship had never entered Iraqi waters... MORE

Alarm is growing over the fate of Andrei Babitsky, the Radio Liberty correspondent detained by Russian forces in Chechnya some two weeks ago. On February 2, the radio station and Russian media reported that Babitsky had been freed from a "filtration point"--detention centers set up... MORE

Besides the immediate concerns over Andrei Babitsky's well-being, his reported exchange for Russian POWs being held by the Chechen rebels raises other disturbing questions. As his lawyer Genri Reznik and others have pointed out, the exchange suggests that the authorities, without formally charging or putting... MORE

On February 2, Estonia observed the eightieth anniversary of the Russian-Estonian treaty of Tartu, which marked the defeat of Soviet Russia's effort to seize Estonia by force and enshrined Moscow's recognition of the independent Estonian state and its borders. Although torn to shreds by the... MORE

The law on vetting former KGB officers and informers, enacted by the Lithuanian parliament last November, went into effect on February 1. Former agents of the KGB and of Soviet military intelligence are required to register with an interdepartmental commission of the Lithuanian government and... MORE

On January 21, a court in Riga found the former Red partisan, Vasily Kononov, guilty of war crimes and sentenced him to six years in prison. Kononov commanded a Soviet guerrilla unit in 1944 which, in German uniforms, set a Latvian village on fire and... MORE

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wound up her three-day visit to Moscow yesterday with an address to Russia's Diplomatic Academy and, afterward, some three hours of talks with acting Russian President Vladimir Putin. The talks with Putin were unlikely to have covered significant new ground.... MORE

The Russian military is denying the Chechen claims that the rebels were able to break through the federal forces' circle around the Chechen capital and asserting both that the rebels had suffered heavy losses and that Russian troops would soon capture the city. Russian Defense... MORE

On January 21, the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) closed its fourth session with the ousting of its leftist speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko and his communist first deputy Adam Martynyuk. These dismissals are a victory for newly re-elected President Leonid Kuchma and his just-as-new center-right pro-presidential parliamentary... MORE

The split in Ukraine's parliament (Verkhovna Rada)--formalized after Leonid Kuchma's re-election as president in December--has deepened even further with the center-right majority's election of a new speaker, deputies and standing committee chairmen. The leftists are clearly the losers. On February 1 the 259 center-right lawmakers... MORE