While international attention is focused on the war in Chechnya and the controversy it has generated at the Istanbul summit, the scandal surrounding alleged Kremlin corruption has erupted once again. The newspaper Versiya claimed this week that it had documents from Switzerland's Banca del Gottardo... MORE

Not since 1991 has an international conference entailed such high stakes for so many of the post-Soviet countries as does the current summit in Istanbul of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). And it is symbolically appropriate--for it signifies a full turn... MORE

Precisely what Moscow had committed to was still unclear at the end of the day, however. Western reports quoting Western officials said that Moscow had agreed not only to a humanitarian role for the OSCE in Chechnya, but a political one as well. British Foreign... MORE

A tumultuous Day One of the Istanbul summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit began yesterday with recriminations but ended with Russian and Western leaders having found enough common ground to complete the drafting of several key security documents. In... MORE

A reshuffled government took office in Yerevan on November 16, defusing--for the moment at least--the power struggle between President Robert Kocharian and his rivals. Those rivals--who for the time being are acting as a cohesive bloc--represent the military, political and economic clientele of the country's... MORE

The parliament's November 9 dismissal of Prime Minister Ion Sturza's government may produce important changes in Moldova's political scene, but is unlikely to change Moldova's dismal economic circumstances. Instead, these events have made a sharp deterioration in the Moldovan economy more likely. The no-confidence motion,... MORE

In his radio interview yesterday, Media-Most deputy board chairman Igor Malashenko said that he does not believe that Yeltsin wants to see Russia isolated from the West. Malashenko is obviously trying to appeal directly to Yeltsin--over the heads of Kremlin insiders such as Boris Berezovsky--something... MORE

As President Boris Yeltsin arrived in Istanbul yesterday to attend the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit, Igor Malashenko, deputy director of the Media-Most holding--the media empire founded by the tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky--warned that Russia was moving toward "self-isolation." In an interview with... MORE

Even as the jousting between Moscow and the West over Chechnya intensified in Istanbul, Russian officials in Moscow wrangled with the UN over international efforts to ease the plight of the more than 200,000 refugees estimated to have fled Chechnya. UN High Commissioner for Refugees... MORE

The stage was set in Istanbul yesterday for a war of words between Russia and the West over Chechnya during today's Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit. Russian President Boris Yeltsin arrived at the fifty-four-nation European security meeting yesterday vowing to convince... MORE