With the huge number of kidnappings taking place in and around Chechnya, it is perhaps not surprising that some are calling for extreme anticrime measures. In a televised speech on Wednesday, Chechen Vice President Vakha Arsanov declared that "only guillotines, gallows and unlimited cruelty can... MORE

Ten people freed from captivity in Chechnya through the intercession of CIS Executive Secretary Boris Berezovsky and Russia's Interior Ministry were brought by plane yesterday to Moscow. Among those freed were three army servicemen, two members of the Interior Ministry's internal troops and five civilians,... MORE

If the import of yesterday's exchanges on the island issue remained elusive for those not directly involved in the talks, the two sides did manage several somewhat more concrete accomplishments in other areas. One of those was the creation of two new subcommittees, to be... MORE

Russian and Japanese officials said they were satisfied yesterday following talks in Moscow between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. The two leaders reportedly made some progress in resolving their countries' decades-long dispute over the four disputed south Kuril Islands. But,... MORE

In a statement released by the presidential press service yesterday, President Boris Yeltsin ordered Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Federal Security Service Director Vladimir Putin, Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Bordyuzha to "take urgent and decisive measures to halt cases of... political... MORE

The three co-chairmen of the OSCE's mediating group on Karabakh--Yuri Yukalov of Russia, Georges Vaugier of France and Donald Kaiser of the United States--resumed their mediation effort this week after a long hiatus necessitated by the change of regime in Armenia and the presidential election... MORE

Russia's Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has agreed to participate--representing the ailing President Boris Yeltsin--in a meeting with presidents Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Petru Lucinschi of Moldova, OSCE Chairman-in-Office Bronislaw Geremek, and Transdniester leader Igor Smirnov. The meeting, to be held on November 27-28 in... MORE

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov has signed a decree demoting Salman Raduev from the rank of brigadier general to that of private. Maskhadov also took away Raduev's six-man personal bodyguard, which was given to him for the raid on the Dagestani town of Pervomaiskoe in February... MORE

Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Holubchenko complained yesterday that "Russia's very severe limitations on the transit of Kazakh oil through its territory" are thwarting Ukrainian plans to import oil from Kazakhstan. Holubchenko spoke in Astana both at a meeting with Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbaev... MORE

Moscow was a hub of diplomatic activity yesterday. In addition to the arrival of Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, the city played host to visits by foreign ministers from two of Russia's major Western partners: Canada and Germany. Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy concluded a... MORE