In Moscow, meanwhile, there has been a renewed effort by Russian diplomats to keep international pressure on the United States by getting Russia's own house in order with regard to international disarmament measures. Russian Foreign Ministry sources said on October 12 that the ministry's leadership... MORE

On a day when Russian-U.S. arms control negotiations were taking place in Moscow, Russian diplomats at the United Nations in New York moved to internationalize the Kremlin's opposition to proposed U.S. changes in the ABM treaty. The Russian action was not unexpected. Moscow had last... MORE

Yesterday, prior to the first reports about the bombings in Djohar, the Russian government published its plan for resolving the Chechen crisis. It included three basic points. First, the Kremlin will end its operation in Chechnya only after the Chechen fighters are neutralized. Second, regular... MORE

The gulf between Russia and the West, in terms of perceptions and media coverage of events in Chechnya, has come to the fore with the bombings yesterday evening in Djohar, the republic's capital. According to reports by correspondents for Western news agencies based there, scores... MORE

Supported by Russia's government, the Lukoil company is driving Lithuania's Mazeikiai oil refinery and Butinge maritime terminal into bankruptcy, as a means of thwarting their takeover by the American company Williams International and forcing Lithuania into a partnership. The blackmail has also brought Lithuania close... MORE

It would be unthinkable for the German government to criticize foreign countries for prosecuting former SS or Gestapo personnel involved in crimes against Jews. Should it ever take such an unthinkable step, it would rightly evoke universal condemnation. The Russian government, however, operates according to... MORE

The top Muslim cleric of the Caucasus, Sheik ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, has accused the Russian government and military of waging a war of extermination against the Chechen people and preparing to restore control over the countries of the South Caucasus. His step is the first... MORE

With Russia's parliamentary and presidential elections looming, the number of conspiracy theories related to the struggle for power in Moscow and the Kremlin are proliferating, and a number of them see the Chechen conflict as a major element in that struggle. It has been suggested,... MORE

That the Chechnya issue remains at the top of the Kremlin's agenda was clear from the meeting President Boris Yeltsin held yesterday with heads of Russia's power ministries--defense, interior, the Federal Security Service, among others--along with the foreign affairs minister and the head of the... MORE

However it came about, yesterday's rejection by Moscow of the new U.S. offer suggests that arms control negotiations scheduled to start today in Moscow are unlikely to yield much in the way of progress. A U.S. delegation led by U.S. Under Secretary of State John... MORE