Amid the chest-pounding which the Russian military leadership is currently engaging in over its purported successes in Chechnya, a report published earlier this month is a sobering reminder of the problems which continue to plague the institution which remains the real key to the army's... MORE

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Michel Camdessus has been sending mixed signals concerning the fate of the next tranche of aid to Russia. The tranche--the second US$640 million installment from a US$4.5 billion loan agreed in July--was due in September but postponed in light of... MORE

Russian authorities have announced that federal troops have completed the creation of a cordon sanitaire in Chechnya along the Terek River. Meaning: The entire northern part of Chechnya is now under Moscow's control. The situation in the republic, however, is quite far from resolved. In... MORE

For the first time after seven weeks of hostilities in southern Kyrgyzstan, President Askar Akaev visited the Osh Region on October 9. In the town of Batken--center of the eponymous district, which forms the main theater of operations--Akaev addressed army and interior troops, local residents... MORE

As the Monitor prognosticated some time ago, (see the Monitor, July 9), Moscow has openly endorsed Leonid Kuchma for reelection as president of Ukraine in the October 31 balloting. On October 9, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov--while in Ukraine with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin--declared... MORE

Nikolai Volkov, the top investigator from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, said today that further progress on the Aeroflot case would depend on how soon the Swiss would hand over related documents. The transfer, he said, is complicated by Swiss legal procedures, and the case... MORE

Swiss law enforcement authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the aluminum magnate Lev Chernoy for suspected money laundering and organized crime activities. The Geneva-based weekly SonntagsBlick reported that Chernoy has been working with Geneva metals firm operating in Russia through joint ventures and that... MORE

This sort of analysis raises some obvious questions. Russian political leaders have made clear--and this principle is apparently enshrined in the new security documents--that defense spending in Russia is set to rise. What is unclear is how these documents, meant to serve as guidelines for... MORE

Amid Russia's escalating war in the Caucasus and the rush of pre-election political maneuverings in Moscow, Russian government and military leaders have moved with alacrity in recent weeks to finish work on several key national security documents. The two most important are a military doctrine... MORE

According to the Russian Defense Ministry's press center, Russian troops have blocked a large group of Chechen fighters in the village of Goragorsky, located fifty-five kilometers from the Chechen capital of Djohar. They may have laid their hands on a very important "bird". Vladimir Shamanov,... MORE