Nabi Sensoy, Turkey's ambassador to Russia, called yesterday for Moscow to offer new assurances that Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), will not be given political asylum in Russia. The PKK has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since 1984. It... MORE

However bad things are in Russia, they seem not to be translating into support for its Communist Party (KPRF) and others in the radical and "national patriotic" opposition. Turnout for opposition rallies on November 7 was very light: According to Russia's Interior (which, granted, is... MORE

On November 6, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, a presumptive candidate in Russia's next presidential election, lent his voice to the chorus of Russian political leaders calling for closer relations between Belgrade and Moscow. Luzhkov's remarks followed a meeting in the Russian capital with Vojislav Seselj,... MORE

The controversy surrounding anti-Semitic comments made last month by a radical member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) escalated over the weekend. During a rally Saturday (November 7) marking the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, the head of the party's Moscow branch... MORE

The rebel forces were pushed back yesterday from the key Anzob mountain pass, which is situated midway between rebel-held Jujand and Dushanbe and controls the sole highway between the two. Yet the rebels retained the ability to cut the highway, compelling government forces to make... MORE

The multinational Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), holder of the US$8 billion "contract of the century" in Caspian oilfields, seems to be developing internal disagreements regarding the choice of the Main Export Pipeline (MEP) for Caspian oil. Although AIOC envisioned from the outset the Baku-Georgia-Ceyhan... MORE

Addressing a session of the NATO Council in Brussels, Estonian President Lennart Meri expressed concern over an increasingly apparent "lack of political will" to enlarge the alliance. Meri noted that the theme of enlargement is fading out from political discourse, and that decisionmakers seem reluctant... MORE

First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Holubchenko yesterday expressed full satisfaction with the agreement he has just concluded in Moscow with Gazprom. Ukraine will repay through domestically produced goods--mainly foodstuffs, rather than cash or industrial equity--four-fifths of its US$1.2 billion arrears to Gazprom. Furthermore, Ukraine will... MORE

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov said yesterday that the republic's law enforcement bodies will take measures to capture Salman Raduev, head of the self-styled "Army of General Dudaev," and transfer him to a "colony." The previous day, Chechnya's Supreme Sharia Court sentenced Raduev to four years'... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday denounced Czech President Vaclav Havel for remarks in which the Czech leader reportedly defended NATO's authority to carry out military operations without UN sanction. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin told reporters that Moscow had "paid attention to the speech [made]... MORE