While Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov seems to be the one to beat in the race to succeed President Boris Yeltsin, one recent poll indicated that Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the liberal Yabloko movement, is the real comer among the likely candidates. The poll, which was... MORE

The State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, passed several pieces of legislation Wednesday (October 21) which were far more radical--in terms of deficit spending and state interventions in the economy--than the government of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was apparently contemplating. One bill would... MORE

The proposed changes announced by Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbaev in his September 30 address (see the Monitor, October 1) included the creation of two bodies--a Council of Economic Reform and a State Revenues Ministry. These new institutions suggest the consolidation of an economic policy team... MORE

Kyrgyzstan will return to Iran a 700-ton consignment of mostly Russian arms and ammunition, more than the 500 tons reported initially, destined for Afghan warlord Ahmad Shah-Masood. Some Kyrgyz officials, acting on their own initiative, had revealed and impounded the cargo aboard an Iranian train... MORE

President Eduard Shevardnadze and the Defense and State Security Ministries announced yesterday that the Zviadist-military rebellion in western Georgia--which erupted in the predawn hours of October 19--has unraveled. Shevardnadze put the size of the rebel force at 400 men and twenty-two tanks and APCs, almost... MORE

The Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday distanced itself from a visit to Taiwan by a delegation of Russian parliamentarians. It also reiterated Moscow's "unconditional" adherence to a "one China" policy. Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin told reporters that, in official Moscow's view, there is only one... MORE

Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev stopped briefly in India yesterday and then flew on for talks with high-ranking government and military leaders in Vietnam. The two stops mark the beginning of a six-day tour of the Asian-Pacific region by the Russian defense chief. He is... MORE

On October 15 Ukraine's Higher Court of Arbitration confirmed the Dnipropetrovsk tax administration's decision to fine the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) 1.443 million hryvnyas for tax violations. The tax authorities say that in 1996 the UESU illegally transferred US$1 billion to the account... MORE

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin yesterday discounted reports which strongly suggest that Moscow will make no concessions to Japan in talks on the disputed Kuril Islands during next month's Russian-Japanese summit meeting in Moscow. The reports, published last week, had cited unnamed Russian diplomatic... MORE

According to Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin, who spoke on October 20, President Boris Yeltsin has signed a decree concerning the interior ministry's "internal troops," with the goal of creating "highly mobile operational units of the MVD [Interior Ministry] capable of handling situations which suddenly crop... MORE