Yesterday Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman and a massive governmental delegation completed a three-day official visit to Moscow, where they held talks with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and members of the Russian government. (Noteworthy: The Russian side refrained from attacking the Czechs for joining NATO.)... MORE

On April 17 Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov denounced a Russian newspaper report which suggested that President Boris Yeltsin had offered him the post of prime minister. In remarks to reporters, Luzhkov accused "Nezavisimaya gazeta" of having published the report with the purpose of sowing discord... MORE

The plot thickened in at least one of Russia's current domestic political scandals yesterday when financier Boris Berezovsky returned to Moscow to face money-laundering and corruption charges. Berezovsky arrived at Moscow's Sheremetevo airport near Moscow from Nice, France. He had been expected a day earlier.... MORE

The Russian Black Sea Fleet may or may not be deploying a naval task force to the Adriatic to monitor NATO's air offensive against Yugoslavia. Russian and Turkish reports on this topic have contradicted each other. Further, the first of several windows for Russian warships... MORE

Russian officials appeared over the weekend to threaten additional measures aimed at distancing Moscow from the NATO military alliance. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper "Pais" on April 18, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reportedly described NATO military operations against Yugoslavia as a violation... MORE

Over the weekend, in addition to criticizing talk of a possible Russian military intervention in Yugoslavia, Chernomyrdin also downplayed the chances of Belgrade receiving any near-term invitation to join the Russia-Belarus Union. Repeating the Kremlin's standard line on the matter, he told Russian television viewers... MORE

The Kosovo crisis continued this past weekend to generate a frenzy of political activity in Russia, despite efforts to calm the situation by the Kremlin's recently named envoy for Balkan developments, Viktor Chernomyrdin. The former Russian prime minister consulted with a host of Russian and... MORE

Iran's state radio station in the border city of Mashhad has recently been airing inflammatory Uzbek-language broadcasts on behalf of the shadowy "Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan" (IMU). After an opening salvo which contained mainly religious arguments in urging revolt (see the Monitor, March 26), the... MORE

Russia and Armenia yesterday commissioned the command post of their joint air defense system, a step which signified that the system is operational. Russia's Air Force commander-in-chief, Colonel-General Anatoly Kornukov, and Armenia's chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant-General Mikael Harutiunian, presided over the ceremonial commissioning... MORE

Russia and China warned this week that U.S. plans to develop a national missile defense system would threaten the 1972 ABM treaty. And that, they said, would both undermine international stability and risk the start of a new arms race. In a communique released following... MORE