Latest Monitor Articles

NIKITIN FINALLY GOES ON TRIAL.

More than two-and-a-half years after he was first arrested, a retired naval officer turned environmentalist went on trial for high treason yesterday in St. Petersburg. Aleksandr Nikitin--who once commanded a nuclear-powered submarine--has been accused of divulging state secrets in the work he did in preparing... MORE

MONEY WILL BE PRINTED.

Late on October 20 the Russian government released a draft budget covering the fourth quarter of this year. While the draft was undoubtedly, in part, an effort to accommodate the International Monetary Fund, which has been demanding a clear economic program as a condition for... MORE

LUZHKOV TEARS INTO PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS AND OUSTED REFORMERS.

At a conference held on October 20 by the "Union of Labor"--the political arm of the Russian Federation of Independent Trade Unions--Yuri Luzhkov called for the criminal prosecution of those who organized the "government GKO pyramid." Luzhkov--Moscow's mayor and a leading contender to succeed President... MORE

RUSSIAN ECONOMIC FAVORS TO BELARUS.

Reports from the Moscow session of the Russia-Belarus Union's Executive Committee, as well as follow-up statements by Russian officials, indicate that Belarus has obtained economic concessions which had previously been withheld by Russian governments. These concessions include: agreement that Belarus repay its arrears for Russian... MORE

A ZVIADIST MUTINY IN THE GEORGIAN ARMY.

More than 200 soldiers, supporters of the late president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, rebelled against President Eduard Shevardnadze yesterday in western Georgia, a traditional Zviadist territory. They were led by Lieutenant-Colonel Akaki Eliava, a former Zviadist paramilitary chieftain who was amnestied in 1994 and coopted into the... MORE

RUSSIANS IN FORMER ESTONIAN DISTRICT SEEK ESTONIAN CITIZENSHIP.

Ethnic Russian villagers in an area of Russia seized from Estonia are applying for Estonian passports, according to the Moscow daily "Segodnya." The phenomenon is reported from at least two villages in Petseri district, annexed to the Russian Federation and renamed Pechory following the Soviet... MORE

MOSCOW REJECTS JAPANESE PROTESTS OVER FISHING NEAR KURIL ISLANDS.

Pyongyang yesterday criticized Japan for Tokyo's recent complaints over the presence of North Korean fishing boats in Russia's territorial waters near the disputed Kuril Islands. An official newspaper commentary said that North Korea had been authorized by Russia to fish in the waters off the... MORE

MORE DEPRESSING STATISTICS.

The State Statistics Committee came out with a raft of depressing statistics on October 19. Inflation reached 38.4 percent in September. Real wages have fallen 26.7 percent compared to August--the biggest drop since January 1995. Real wages fell 12.4 percent from January to September of... MORE

YELTSIN RESTRUCTURES SECURITY SERVICES, PERHAPS WITH AN EYE TO RIVALS.

At the beginning of October, President Yeltsin signed a decree changing the structure of the top echelons of the Federal Security Service (FSB). Under the new structure, the agency will have a director, two first deputy directors, six deputies in charge of the FSB's various... MORE

ZHIRINOVSKY IN TAIPEI.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the demagogic leader of Russia's ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), arrived in Taipei yesterday to kick off three days of talks with Taiwanese leaders. Zhirinovsky's delegation is said to be forty-strong, and to include ten other members of his LDPR Duma faction, members... MORE