Richard Butler, the former chairman of the weapons inspection team tasked with overseeing the disarmament of Iraq, charged this week that Russia, China and France had deliberately lied about nerve agent samples left in Baghdad in order to finally "kill" the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM)... MORE

The Syrian government this week signaled its unhappiness over what it alleged was the purpose of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's August 2 visit to Moscow. Syria's state-run radio on August 3 charged that Barak's visit to the Russian capital was aimed not at boosting... MORE

This week's announcement that Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's Fatherland movement and All Russia, the bloc led by Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev, will merge into a coalition, is undeniably a major blow to the Kremlin. What is more, it looks increasingly likely that Prime Minister Sergei... MORE

The Russian press over the past several days has focused heavily on the possible fallout from the formation of the Luzhkov-Shaimiev coalition, including possible Kremlin countermeasures. Yesterday it was predicted that the Kremlin would step up its attacks on Media Most and the Gazprom natural... MORE

Aslan Abashidze, chairman of the Ajar Autonomous Republic's Supreme Soviet, harbors two contradictory ambitions: to maximize Ajaria's autonomy up to virtual independence from Tbilisi and, at the same time, to become president of Georgia. Abashidze maintains close relations with both the Russian military and nationalist... MORE

A pitched battle took place during the day on August 2 in Dagestan's Tsyumadinsk region between members of Dagestan's Interior Ministry and Chechen guerrillas who had crossed over from Chechen territory. The battle reportedly lasted around three hours and followed an attack the previous evening,... MORE

The visit of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic to Moscow followed an incident on the ground in Kosovo this past weekend which re-ignited tensions between the Russian troops in the province and Kosovo Albanians already resentful of those troops. The incident occurred on July 31 when... MORE

Indeed, by such phrasing Djukanovic tried during his Moscow visit to provide some diplomatic cover for the Russian government. But he did not try all that hard. Among the principles which Moscow had ceaselessly trumpeted to justify its support for Milosevic during the Kosovo conflict... MORE

Russian government officials found themselves in the awkward position this week of courting a Yugoslav leader--Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic--who has emerged as one of the key opponents of the man on whose friendship Moscow had until now based its policy in the Balkans--Yugoslav President Slobodan... MORE

It seems clear that the Kremlin--or at least the "family," the Kremlin inner circle which includes Voloshin and the tycoon Boris Berezovsky--will try to do what it can to pry All Russia away from Fatherland, or to weaken or destroy the coalition. In this regard,... MORE