It is not entirely clear why the Luzhkov camp would want to embrace someone as controversial as Lisovsky. It may simply be that he showed himself to be effective in President Boris Yeltsin's 1996 re-election campaign, for which Lisovsky organized a series of pro-Yeltsin rock... MORE

Sergei Lisovsky, one of Russia's top advertising and show business moguls, was elected Friday (June 25) to the board of directors of TV Center, the television channel controlled by the Moscow city government. Lisovsky's appointment to the board closely followed the elevation of Sergei Yastrzhembsky,... MORE

Western intelligence analysts have reportedly reached some new conclusions regarding the circumstances surrounding the June 12 dispatch of Russian paratroopers to Pristina. There has been speculation that the surprise deployment was masterminded by hardline military leaders openly dissatisfied with the Kosovo peace agreement negotiated by... MORE

Russia being Russia, however, the weekend's troop deployment could not be completed without at least one international incident. Yesterday, the second of two Russian flights to Pristina violated an agreement between Moscow and Bucharest governing Russian overflights of Romanian territory. The agreement stipulated that one... MORE

Russian military transports began flying men and materiel into Kosovo over the weekend as the Russian Defense Ministry moved to expand its military presence in the devastated province. The Russian action followed a June 25 vote by the country's upper house of parliament authorizing the... MORE

Russia's "peacekeeping" troops in Abkhazia and Abkhaz authorities celebrated jointly on June 23 the fifth anniversary of the deployment of the Russian contingent in what is officially termed the "Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone." In a special message, Russian President Boris Yeltsin congratulated the troops for "fulfilling... MORE

The government of Kazakhstan received an unprecedented rebuff from parliament yesterday, barely surviving--thanks only to a technicality--a motion of no confidence. The motion to dismiss the cabinet of ministers was approved by margins of 23 to 11 in the Senate and 34 to 18 in... MORE

With the presidential elections just four months away, developments involving nascent Ukrainian oligarchs are taking unexpected and spectacular turns. Yesterday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced that Vadim Rabinovich, a Ukrainian-Israeli tycoon--president of Swiss-registered concern Rico Capital Group and chairman of the All-Ukrainian Jewish... MORE

In a recent interview, President Boris Yeltsin reiterated that his constitutional term as president ends next summer and that he thus has no plans to run again for the Russian presidency (Der Spiegel, June 20). Yeltsin's comments in this regard may have been part of... MORE

While they hardly get noticed anymore, the number of contract killings in Russia in the first five months of this year was twice that for the same period in 1998. Russian Interior Ministry officials reported yesterday that 567 businessmen were killed by hitmen between January... MORE