On October 12 and 13, Kyrgyz government troops seized the vast Hoj-Achkan Gorge and the eponymous village, apparently the last stronghold of the Islamic, mainly Uzbek rebels in Kyrgyzstan. The military operation featured air strikes by L-39 planes which were described as Kyrgyz, though the... MORE

Presidents Haidar Aliev of Azerbaijan and Robert Kocharian of Armenia met on October 11 in the border village of Sadarak, just inside Azerbaijani territory in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, to discuss general principles for settling the Karabakh conflict. The venue's significance is manyfold and seems... MORE

In the immediate aftermath of NATO's air war against Yugoslavia, there were signs that Moscow intended to mend its relations with the West. That at least seemed to be the Kremlin's aim during a meeting of the Russian and U.S. presidents in Cologne in June,... MORE

Russia has in recent days continued to take heat from the European Union both for Moscow's escalating military operations in the Caucasus and--apparently--for related pressures to increase substantially the Russian defense budget. In a speech to EU parliamentarians in Helsinki on October 12, Finnish Foreign... MORE

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and self-styled ultra-nationalist, is busy setting up a new electoral coalition in the wake of the Central Election Commission's (CEC) refusal earlier this week to register the LDPR for December's parliamentary vote. Two small... MORE

The immediate political fallout from the Federation Council's decision to defy Boris Yeltsin a third time concerning Yuri Skuratov could be a shake-up at the top of the Kremlin administration. The decision to put the Skuratov question to a third vote was reportedly initiated by... MORE

The Kremlin was handed a major defeat yesterday when the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, voted 98 to 52 to reject President Boris Yeltsin's decision to dismiss Yuri Skuratov as prosecutor general. According to Russia's constitution, the president must get the approval... MORE

Tajikistan's presidential election, its balloting scheduled for November 6, has unraveled beyond repair. The authorities, controlled by incumbent President Imomali Rahmonov, have prevented other presidential aspirants from registering. These include Economics and Foreign Trade Minister Dovlat Usmonov of the Islamic Rebirth Party (IRP), Sulton Kuvvatov... MORE

President Leonid Kuchma, seeking reelection for a second five-year term, is the only market-oriented candidate who stands a good chance of winning Ukraine's presidential race. Candidates in the national-democratic camp are weak and disunited (see the Monitor, August 27, September 17). Leonid Danilovich Kuchma was... MORE

While the Russian army continues to lose good officers, it apparently is retaining the services of some whom it would be better off without. At a conference last week sponsored by the Russian Main Military Prosecutor's office, representatives of various law enforcement agencies were reportedly... MORE