The recent assault against Ukrainian Orthodox Church Patriarch Filaret in the eastern Donetsk region serves as a reminder that Ukraine remains a society divided along ethnic, cultural and religious lines. Filaret, who arrived in the industrial city of Mariupol to bless the ground for a... MORE

The turnout at the international day of workers' solidarity rallies across Ukraine--May 1--was rather high, at 200,000 people. Ukrainian leftists grasped this opportunity to air their views with an eye to the presidential elections in October. The captains of the strongest leftist forces--Petro Symonenko of... MORE

On April 30, Gediminas Vagnorius, bowing to President Valdas Adamkus' insistent demands that he leave office, resigned as prime minister of Lithuania. In a televised address to the country, Vagnorius drew a balance sheet of the cabinet of ministers--composed of Vagnorius' Fatherland Union/Lithuanian Conservatives and... MORE

The Primakov government's optimism is certainly not shared by all in the government. In a soul-searching essay, a high-level official writing under the pseudonym "Mikhail Yurev" puts forth the view that neither Western credits nor the best economic models will save Russia if "the faith... MORE

The government of Yevgeny Primakov is trumpeting the agreement reached last week with the International Monetary Fund for more than US$4 billion in credits. It has also pointed to evidence of growth in certain sectors of the economy as proof that it has managed to... MORE

Increasingly frustrated and angry over their inability to stop NATO's bombing campaign against Serbia, Russian leaders have once again been tempted to play some nuclear cards. The scanty reports from last week's Kremlin meeting of the Security Council indicate that the government has decided to... MORE

One item likely to be on Viktor Chernomyrdin's agenda in Washington today is the oil embargo which the European Union and the United States have imposed on Yugoslavia. Moscow has repeatedly stated its objections to the embargo, and its intention to ignore it. That position... MORE

A spate of diplomatic initiatives led to renewed pressure over the weekend for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Kosovo. But Washington and NATO headquarters rejected a set of peace proposals offered by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Belgrade's proposals were communicated directly in an... MORE

On April 26, Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin made an official trip to the Kursk region of Stavropol krai. The purpose of the visit by Stepashin, whom Yeltsin appointed as a first deputy prime minister two days later, was to tighten the border between Russian and... MORE

The saga of Russia's troubled Mir space station took an unexpected turn this week, as reports surfaced that a British businessman had agreed to pay some US$100 million for a week-long ride on the station. According to initial statements by officials for Russia's state-controlled RKK... MORE