Vladimir Putin yesterday named Vladimir Kozhin to replace Pavel Borodin as head of the Kremlin's "property management" department. A Russian internet news service reported that prior to his new appointment, Kozhin was the head of the Federal Service for Currency and Export Control and that... MORE

An initiative group supporting Vladimir Putin met yesterday and put the acting head of state forward as a candidate for the March 26 presidential election. The group, made up of nearly two hundred prominent cultural, business and cultural figures, was put together by Gazprom chief... MORE

Yet another instance of Russian conscript soldiers running amok has resulted in a shooting and a diplomatic incident at the U.S. embassy in Moscow this week. A nineteen-year-old Russian soldier was discovered on the night of January 10 by embassy personnel apparently trying to steal... MORE

Russia's aging Mir space station may have won an improbable reprieve in recent days, though reports of a new sponsor for the station remain sketchy and a proposed new mission to Mir, tentatively set for later this year, must still clear some key hurdles. Both... MORE

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has generally succeeded in keeping fluctuations of the Ukrainian hryvnya within the targeted currency's "corridor" of US$1 = 3.5-4.6 hryvnya during 1999. For most of the year the hryvnya stayed within the corridor without the NBU having to intervene... MORE

The December 22 appointment of National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Chairman Viktor Yushchenko leaves Kyiv facing the task of passing its 2000 budget in order to finalize its agreement with the IMF for a US$2.6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Ukraine's presidential elections, followed by... MORE

Ukrainian Premier Viktor Yushchenko was given a free hand by President Leonid Kuchma to form his cabinet of ministers, which Yushchenko has promised to be a government of "top professionals." This should allow him to shape reforms according to his liberal vision. On the other... MORE

For the first time since its independence, Ukraine has a Western-oriented liberal economist as premier, Viktor Yushchenko. On December 22, Ukraine's parliament (the Verkhovna Rada) endorsed Yushchenko--then National Bank (NBU) chairman--by a vote of 296-12 with four abstentions. The largest faction--the Communist, numbering 112 deputies--refused... MORE

An Israeli organization reported this past weekend that the number of Russians emigrating to Israel more than doubled from 1998 to 1999. According to the Moscow office of the Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental body which has facilitated the emigration of thousands of Jews to Israel... MORE

Contradictory reports continue to flow out of Chechnya. Chechen government officials claim that their fighters continue to control the towns of Shali, Argun and Gudermes (see the Monitor, January 10). In addition, Momadi Saidaev, head of the Chechen forces' operational headquarters, claimed that they plan... MORE