The Kremlin has announced that it plans in the near future to open special "corridors" to allow the Chechen republic's civilian population to leave the regions controlled by rebel fighters. At the moment, the Russian troops are not allowing anyone to either leave or enter... MORE

Despite the recent bravado about Russia's ability to counter the deployment of any U.S. antiballistic missile defense system, Russian military authorities will clearly face financial difficulties if they attempt to do so. Russia's Soviet-era ballistic missiles are rapidly nearing the end of their service life,... MORE

Russian determination to resist any rewriting of the 1972 ABM treaty was in evidence again yesterday as a top Defense Ministry official warned that Moscow would overcome any antiballistic missile defense system the United States were to deploy. In remarks to the influential Russian Council... MORE

Two weeks ago Tajikistan's Central Elections and Referendum Commission (CERC) disqualified all three challengers to President Imomali Rahmonov from the presidential race, leaving Rahmonov to run unopposed to a guaranteed triumph on November 6 (see the Monitor, October 13). The CERC cited the three candidates'... MORE

According to Lieutenant-General William Odom, former director of the United States National Security Agency (NSA), Yevgeny Primakov--Russia's ex-foreign minister and prime minister--has been involved in two assassination attempts against Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze. In a live interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on October 22,... MORE

Just when it looked impossible that they could get worse, the "kompromat" wars on Russia's television channels set new lows last night. Secret Material, a new program on the Moscow city government's Center-TV hosted by Aleksandr Khinshtein--renowned Moskovsky komsomolets journalist and foe of Boris Berezovsky--devoted... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin today denounced recent claims in the Russian media that he had cooled on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, his designated successor, as "lies." Yeltsin, who met with Putin today, praised him for taking the "right tone" during the European Union summit on October... MORE

If it hadn't been so otherwise, the Djohar bombing ensured that the subject of Chechnya dominated the October 22 Russia-European Union meeting. EU officials reportedly grilled Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about the bombing incident and Russian policy in the region overall but his responses... MORE

Western condemnation of Moscow's military operations in Chechnya intensified over the weekend in the wake of the October 21 deadly bombing attack in Djohar. The criticism remained declaratory, however, with no immediate threat of penalties or sanctions of any sort to back it up. Russian... MORE

Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz has been considered potentially the strongest challenger to President Leonid Kuchma in the two-round presidential election scheduled for October 31 and November 14. Although trailing two other Red candidates--the ultraleft Progressive Socialist Natalya Vitrenko and the Communist Petro Symonenko--in the... MORE