Moving quickly to restore confidence in their newest ICBM following a failed test flight (see the Monitor, October 26), the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) have taken delivery of five more RS-12M2 Topol-M missiles. These are to be installed in silos at the SMF base at... MORE

Last Thursday (October 29) Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov met for the first time with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. The meeting took place in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz. Security for the meeting was heavy: An estimated 5,000 troops, including forces of the North... MORE

Russia's armed forces remain in a dismal financial state, according to a raft of figures released over the weekend. The Russian Defense Ministry press service said on October 30 that, as of October 27, the armed forces had received only 31 billion rubles out of... MORE

In Baghdad, however, the leader of Russia's ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party was singing a different tune. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is in Iraq at the head of a Russian parliamentary delegation, met yesterday with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Afterwards, the Iraqi news agency INA... MORE

Moscow spoke in two distinct voices yesterday--one official and one unofficial--as yet another conflict over weapons inspections flared up between Iraq and the UN. This latest drama began on October 30, when the United States blocked a UN Security Council proposal to consider a lifting... MORE

The Russian government approved its long-awaited anticrisis plan on Saturday (October 31), just one day after an IMF mission left Moscow without agreeing to release any of the US$4.3 billion installment slated as a second installment of a multibillion-dollar bailout package. Russian agencies quoted a... MORE

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said earlier this week that Russia has approached the United States about the possible purchase of significant amounts of foodstuffs. Glickman said little either about the exact size of the Russian request or the form that any U.S. food aid package... MORE

Aid of another sort, meanwhile, will apparently be traveling from Moscow to Baghdad over the weekend. Russian news agencies reported yesterday that Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the maverick leader of Russia's ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, is set to depart by air for Iraq on October 31. Zhirinovsky,... MORE

Despite the brouhaha raised by leading political figures in Moscow over threatened NATO air strikes against targets in Yugoslavia, a recent public opinion poll suggests that most Russians care little about developments in this area. According to a survey of some 1,600 Russians taken by... MORE

Kommersant daily" reported Friday (October 30) that the government of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov is asking for a US$200 million prepayment for diamonds delivered to De Beers, South Africa's diamond monopoly. Russia is also hoping to receive a very large loan from De Beers, the... MORE