Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin visited the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala earlier this week. During a meeting which included Dagestan's top officials, Russian Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Kolesnikov declared that the resistance of criminal groups in Dagestan had become systemic and that the republic will... MORE

Addressing a Stockholm conference on Baltic area security, Zbigniew Brzezinski urged Russia to officially reverse its position that the incorporation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the USSR had been legitimate. Brzezinski cited official Russian statements, including recent Foreign Ministry publications, which assert that the... MORE

In his extraordinary address to parliament on November 19, President Kuchma proposed measures aimed at reversing the economic recession, stopping the steady fall of the GDP and accumulation of wage and tax arrears, and stimulating production. Kuchma's prescriptions included: canceling tax breaks and simultaneously decreasing... MORE

Although the Duma's long-awaited action on START II will be applauded in Washington, a long list of conditions which lawmakers have apparently included in the new ratification bill could negate yesterday's seemingly positive developments. The new draft reportedly states, for example, that Russia will withdraw... MORE

Russian lawmakers had, at various times, suggested any number of reasons for their opposition to START II ratification. Those reasons ranged from NATO's planned enlargement and concerns over possible noncompliance by the United States with the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty to Russian objections to threatened... MORE

Russian lawmakers yesterday indicated their readiness--at last--to move forward on ratification of the START II strategic arms treaty. But, much as that news will be welcomed in Washington, a series of conditions which the Duma apparently intends to attach to the treaty could yet throw... MORE

In what was perhaps a tacit admission that the bleakest forecasts for Russia's economy might turn out to be correct, Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has attacked his predecessors--specifically the "so-called reformers," whom he accused in an interview of destroying Russia's banking system and building "financial... MORE

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was unanimously elected yesterday to chair the organizing committee of "Otechestvo" (Fatherland), a new political movement. Luzhkov said the movement "will aspire to power"--meaning, presumably, run candidates in next year's parliamentary elections. He declared that the movement will aim at the... MORE

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on Tuesday fired the would-be state television reformer, Mykola Knyazhytsky, 30, from the post of president of the State Television Company (STC) (Ukrainian agencies and television, November 17). The dismissal followed a scandal which broke out after Knyazhytsky withheld the broadcast... MORE

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov appeared yesterday at a session of the republic's Supreme Sharia Court, which was examining the accusations made by field commanders Salman Raduev, Shamil Basaev and Khunkar Israpilov that Maskhadov has violated Chechnya's constitution. Among those who appeared at the session were... MORE