Two days after Russia's parliamentary election, arms control issues yesterday were once again front-and-center in Russian-U.S. relations. Developments yesterday occurred on three fronts: in a fresh effort by the Russian government to win parliamentary approval of the START II strategic arms reduction treaty, in the... MORE

Among the notables who won Duma seats representing single-mandate districts were the tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who will represent a district in the Caucasian republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, and Roman Abramovich, the head of the Sibneft oil company and another Kremlin insider, who won a seat representing... MORE

The vote count for the December 19 State Duma election is very nearly complete. As of yesterday evening, with 98.03 percent of the ballots counted, Fatherland-All Russia, the bloc headed by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, saw its overall percentage... MORE

Administrative reform, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's primary election promise and the contingency for international loans to Ukraine, seems to be at long last underway. On December 14, Kuchma launched the campaign by signing three decrees aimed at reducing and streamlining Ukraine's cumbersome cabinet of ministers.... MORE

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is due this week to begin monitoring Georgia's border with Russia opposite Chechnya. This action--which comes not a moment too soon--should relieve some of the Russian pressure on Georgia and, specifically, discourage a possible intrusion of... MORE

Russian forces are reportedly engaged in heavy fighting with Chechen forces both in Djohar, the capital of the breakaway republic, and in its southern mountainous regions. Russian officials yesterday announced that federal forces had taken control of the civilian airport just outside the city, while... MORE

The vote count for Russia's State Duma elections has not yet been made final, but it is unlikely to differ significantly from the preliminary results which have been coming out over the last twenty-four hours. As of nine o'clock this morning, the Communist Party of... MORE

The December 17 UN Security Council resolution establishes a new agency charged with disarming Iraq. Awkwardly tagged the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC), the new body replaces UNSCOM, the UN Special Commission which previously oversaw the UN disarmament efforts in Iraq. UN Secretary... MORE

The UN Security Council approved a resolution on December 17 which, in principle, dissolves the council's long stalemate over policy toward Baghdad and could also return UN arms inspectors to Iraq. But, despite claims of a triumph in Washington and London, the fact that four... MORE

A host of international lenders have recently concluded agreements with the Kazakhstani government which should allow Astana to finance its fiscal deficits in 2000, help remove the uncertainty which hung above Kazakhstan's fiscal balance throughout 1999, improve Kazakhstan's economic growth prospects in 2000 and could... MORE