Boldyrev's enumeration of alleged instances of high-level corruption, coming on the heels of his electoral victory in St. Petersburg, suggests he may be eyeing the national political stage. Asked by reporters yesterday whether he planned to run for governor of St. Petersburg or the presidency,... MORE

Russia and other members of the deeply divided UN Security Council resumed consultations yesterday on policy toward Baghdad in the wake of last week's U.S. and British air strikes on Iraq. Diplomatic sources suggested that the talks would most likely be long and difficult. At... MORE

Meanwhile, Yuri Boldyrev, whose political bloc turned in an impressive performance in Sunday's run-off vote for St. Petersburg's legislative assembly, held forth Monday (December 21) on the issue of corruption. Addressing a national parliamentary commission set up to examine corruption in the "higher echelons of... MORE

Nikolai Bordyuzha, the new chief of President Boris Yeltsin's administration and secretary of the Security Council, a presidential advisory body, held a meeting Monday (December 21) with the heads of Russia's power "ministries," including the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service. After the meeting,... MORE

On December 18 the Milli Mejlis--an international consortium--ratified a twenty-five-year contract, worth an estimated US$9 billion, for exploring and developing Azerbaijan's Alov, Araz and Sharg offshore oilfields. The value of this contract is second only to the 1994 "deal of the century" for the Chirag-Azeri-Guneshli... MORE

On December 18 the Constitutional Court of Tajikistan began hearings in the case of the Communist Party (CPT) vs. the country's presidency. The party is challenging President Imomali Rahmonov's decree which ordered the confiscation of the CPT's remaining property and handing it over to the... MORE

Under a protocol signed on December 18, the university of Voronezh in Russia has granted Estonian experts access to the antiquities, art, and manuscript collections of Estonia's venerable Tartu university. The agreement also envisages joint cataloguing of the collections. A meeting of the Russian-Estonian intergovernmental... MORE

Heading a twenty-six-strong parliamentary delegation to Moscow on December 17-19, Ukrainian Parliament Chairman Oleksandr Tkachenko apparently failed to persuade Russia's Duma to ratify the bilateral interstate treaty. Signed by Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma in May 1997, the treaty--which enshrines Ukraine's territorial integrity--has been... MORE

The Italian construction firm "Impredzhilo" has restarted negotiations on reconstructing the Makhachkala International Sea Trading Port, the strategic Russian warm-water port located on the Caspian Sea. According to the business plan approved at the beginning of the year by Russia's economics ministry, twelve new moorings... MORE

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is continuing his efforts to absorb the "centrist" portion of the Russian electorate. Otechestvo (Fatherland), Luzhkov's new political movement, held its founding congress over the weekend. In his keynote address, Luzhkov again hit the theme which is likely to be one... MORE