Russian President Boris Yeltsin's erratic health and behavior, for a long time key factors in Russian domestic politics, interjected themselves yet again yesterday, this time into the country's foreign affairs as well. Following the Russian leader's departure from a Moscow hospital, the Kremlin press office--with... MORE

After posting 6 percent GDP growth in 1997 and 10 percent growth in 1998, official statistics released in November indicate that the Azerbaijani economy is once again accelerating. But though Azerbaijan has become one of the CIS's fastest-growing economies, this growth remains narrowly concentrated in... MORE

With the ink barely dry on the documents of the Istanbul summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the breakaway regions of Transdniester, Abkhazia and Karabakh seem confident enough to act defiantly. The leaders in Tiraspol, Sukhumi and Stepanakert have announced... MORE

In what has become an almost regular weekly feature, Zerkalo--the weekly news analysis program on RTR state television--broadcast a lengthy interview with Putin yesterday evening. In it, the prime minister said that he supported "smooth amicable relations with all countries of the West and the... MORE

Russian press outlets sympathetic to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Fatherland-All Russia (OVR)--meaning, for the most part, those belonging to Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-Most empire--appear more desperate in trying to counter the attacks on Luzhkov and the other OVR leader, Yevgeny Primakov, in the pro-Kremlin press.... MORE

The battle between the Kremlin and the leaders of Fatherland-All Russia (OVR) heated up over the weekend. On Saturday (December 4), the Kremlin press service released a statement saying that President Boris Yeltsin, who was in the Central Clinical Hospital recovering from pneumonia, had signed... MORE

The pressures being exerted on Moscow over Iraq are not coming from Washington and London alone. With the status of the oil-for-food program at stake and with a vote on the British-Dutch draft resolution possibly looming, Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz scrambled to Moscow... MORE

Moscow finds itself on the hotseat this week as Security Council members continue their months-long effort to formulate a new UN policy toward Iraq. Russia joined China and Malaysia in abstaining on a Council vote this past Friday (December 3) which approved a resolution extending... MORE

Moldova has become the first post-Soviet country since 1991 to invite its Communist Party to form the government. On December 1, Communist Party Central Committee First Secretary Vladimir Voronin was nominated as prime minister and tasked to form a new cabinet by President Petru Lucinschi.... MORE

On an official visit to Sweden, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga assessed Russia's military operations in Chechnya as evidence that Russia still possesses powerful and effective armed forces. "One must conclude, therefore, that the Russian military maintains a level of combat readiness which also creates a... MORE