Although many of the smaller CIS countries have reported very respectable growth rates since the mid-1990s, until 1999 none of the larger economies reported appreciable gains in output. This year and last have been entirely different. Over the course of these last few years, the... MORE

While Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine appear to have cobbled together economic systems in which the private sector is finally generating growth, two of the three members of the CIS that have been most loath to use markets have had a poor year. Belarus, Turkmenistan and... MORE

In what some news sources described as another sign of the Russian military leadership's growing dissatisfaction with President Vladimir Putin's recent turn toward the West, a high-ranking Russian general said last week that Moscow would make no concessions to the United States on fundamental issues... MORE

There has been much good news out of Russia recently, including continued economic growth and ongoing reform of both the economic and judicial spheres. Last month, for example, the State Duma passed a final version of a new Criminal Procedural Code that, among other things,... MORE

Contract killings, of course, are not confined to Moscow, and incidents in other cities suggest that business throughout Russia remains highly criminalized. On November 28, Vladimir Zubov, head of the Pugachevsky district of Saratov Oblast, was wounded when a grenade that was fixed to the... MORE

The presidents of all twelve member countries of the CIS met in Moscow on November 30 to mark the organization's tenth anniversary. Even Turkmen President Saparmurat Niazov, a habitual boycotter of CIS summits, attended this one. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, who had stayed away from... MORE

For his part, Kuchma used this summit to highlight his tactical alliance with the Kremlin in the run up to the parliamentary elections in Ukraine. This alliance has recurred cyclically since 1994, ahead of every presidential and parliamentary election in Ukraine, only to dissolve after... MORE

Thank God for the end of electoral shocks in Byelorussia, now we can start working intensively to fulfill our earlier agreements," stated Russian President Vladimir Putin, receiving Belarusan President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in the Kremlin. "We value"--Putin continued--"the Byelorussian president's positive attitude toward Russia and toward... MORE

Cooperation between Russia and the United States in the U.S.-led antiterror war, heretofore the foundation of the recent rapprochement between the two countries, has turned a bit sour this week following Moscow's unexpected dispatch of Russian troops and diplomatic personnel to Kabul, the capital of... MORE

A top Dagestani official who is serving as a witness in the trial of Chechen rebel warlord Salman Raduev testified yesterday that Raduev personally led the January 1996 armed raid on a hospital in the Dagestani town of Kizlyar and the village of Pervomaisk. The... MORE