One area in which relations between Russia and China appear not to have cooled at all, however, is arms sales. On January 4 news agencies announced that, a day earlier, the two countries had signed a major new arms contract under which Russia will build... MORE

The Russian authorities' took another step against the country's largest financial-industrial fiefdoms yesterday, when prosecutors detained three officials of Sibur, the giant petrochemical company that is 51-percent owned by Gazprom, Russia's natural gas monopoly. Sibur CEO Yakov Goldovsky and board chairman Vyacheslav Sheremet were being... MORE

Georgia's president and parliament are under pressure from Russia to prolong the mandate of "CIS peacekeeping troops" in Abkhazia that expired on December 31. Those troops are now without even the semblance of any legal status. And even when they had it, it was at... MORE

In the run up to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's meeting just held in Beijing (see the Monitor, January 9), a Kyrgyz court in Bishkek passed sentences on a group of Uighur exiles charged as "international terrorists." Otabek Akhadov, 22, an ethnic Uighur resident of Uzbekistan,... MORE

Russian commentators reacted with equanimity--and no small amount of cynicism--to reports published yesterday indicating that the United States may be preparing to resume nuclear weapons testing. They were responding in particular to a Washington Post report that stated the administration's highly classified Nuclear Posture Review,... MORE

An anti-American duo--Russia and China--drowned out Central Asian voices at the meeting of foreign affairs ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries held on January 7 in Beijing. Officially labeled "extraordinary," the meeting was the first held since the organization's inception in June... MORE

Renewed fighting broke out January 7 in the Chechen city of Argun, the scene of an intense battle between federal and rebel forces last month (see the Monitor, December 13-14, 19, 2001). In the latest Argun battle, two Russian servicemen were reportedly killed and four... MORE

A demonstration planned for January 6 by opponents of Valery Kokov, president of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, was cancelled after the authorities informed its organizers that they would not receive permission to hold it. The demonstration's organizers--four of the six candidates who are challenging Kokov in... MORE

As expected, Russia's State Duma adopted the federal budget for 2002 in its fourth and final reading on December 14. The Federation Council approved it on December 26, sending the document to the Kremlin for the president's signature. The final version of the budget calls... MORE

The New Year has brought a new crisis to Ingushetia. The North Caucasus republic unexpectedly entered 2002 with an acting president. On December 29, Ingush President Ruslan Aushev, one of Russia's most influential regional leaders, signed a decree declaring his pre-term resignation. The chairman of... MORE