Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev is scheduled to travel to South Korea later this week, where he will hold talks from September 2-4 with President Kim Dae-jung and other top South Korean officials. Sergeev will join a large Russian military delegation already in South Korea... MORE

The Kremlin, clearly on the defensive about a host of allegations in Western media concerning alleged moneylaundering through the Bank of New York and alleged Swiss bank accounts held by top Russian government officials, appears to have moved yet again to purge unreliable members from... MORE

The Islamic insurgents in Kyrgyzstan's Batken and Choi-Alan districts continue successfully to elude government troops. By the same token, they seem unable thus far to attain their presumed, primary goal of reaching Uzbek and Kyrgyz sections of the Ferghana Valley. On August 30, Uzbek fighter-bomber... MORE

Tony and Hugh Rodham--brothers to U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton--have launched a joint venture, Argo International, which plans to grow and export Georgian walnuts on a massive scale. In connection with the venture, the Rodhams paid a high-profile visit to the region from August 19-27,... MORE

On August 29, Georgia's National Security Council, under the chairmanship of President Eduard Shevardnadze, decided to acquiesce in a prolongation of the Russian "peacekeeping" forces' mandate in Abkhazia. Georgia had for nearly two years declined to take that step, citing Moscow's pro-Abkhaz leanings. Yet even... MORE

On August 29, just days after announcing victory in a campaign to drive Chechen-led Islamist guerrillas out of villages in Dagestan, Russian artillery and aircraft hit separatist forces in other parts of the republic. A Russian Interior Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying that Russian... MORE

The first round of an election for Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast, held on August 29, was inconclusive (NTV, August 29; Itar-Tass, August 30). As had been predicted, incumbent Eduard Rossel came first with 39 percent of the votes. Lying in second place however was not,... MORE

The impasse at Orahovac--and Russia's role in the KFOR peacekeeping mission more generally--has, meanwhile, been on the minds of key U.S. diplomats. The situation in the Balkans was reportedly the main topic of discussion during a telephone conversation on August 29 between Russian Foreign Minister... MORE

The standoff between a Russian KFOR contingent and ethnic Albanian protesters near the city of Orahovac has continued into a second week. Negotiations between leaders of the Albanian protesters--including representatives of the Kosovo Liberation Army--and Russian, Dutch and German officers have thus far failed to... MORE

Among the Russian newspapers, only Novaya gazeta accepted the Western press charges, with Yuri Shchekochikhin, its deputy editor and a Yabloko deputy in the State Duma, asserting that the "largest part" of the laundered billions--which, he claimed, ultimately ended up in such places as Cyprus,... MORE