Despite a rapid warming in relations more generally and a narrowing of differences on several key foreign and security policy issues, Russia and the United States have continued to clash in recent weeks on the subject of UN policy toward Iraq. This was demonstrated anew... MORE

The presidential election campaign in the Far Eastern republic of Yakutia, Russia's main diamond-extracting region, heated up further last week. On November 20, Russia's Supreme Court gave Yakutia's five days to rule on the controversial decision of the republic's electoral commission to register the incumbent... MORE

An attempt to re-enter politics by former Russian Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov has provoked a new scandal. In 1998, Skuratov made waves when he conducted a series of high-profile investigations into alleged corruption among Russia's elite. When President Boris Yeltsin sacked Skuratov in April 1999,... MORE

Russian authorities are denying press reports that Chechen rebel field commander Khattab was in command of the foreign pro-Taliban fighters, including those belonging to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, who were holed up in the northern Afghanistan city of Kunduz, which fell yesterday to... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin moved unexpectedly last week to endorse a plan calling for the gradual transformation of Russia's armed forces from a predominantly conscript-based force to one to be staffed, eventually, on a fully professional basis by voluntary recruits. Proposals to professionalize the Russian... MORE

In Moscow on November 19-20, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin genuflected deeply before his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, in the hope of isolating Transdniester's leadership and winning the Kremlin's favor for Chisinau. This visit with Putin was Voronin's fourth in the space of seven months since... MORE

Presidents Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan and Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan met on November 16-17 in Astana to assess the implications of the Taliban reverses and the gains of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Both presidents underscored the urgency of forming a representative Afghan central government... MORE

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved decisively to align his country with the U.S.-led antiterrorist drive. Putin's rhetorical support for the U.S. effort has been strong, and in more practical terms he has also expanded... MORE

On November 14, the State Duma voted again on an amendment to the law "On the general principles for organizing legislative and executive organs of state power of the subjects of the Russian Federation" that would have reduced the number of regional leaders having the... MORE

Elections for Krasnoyarsk Krai's legislative assembly are scheduled for December 23, and the region's political landscape in the walk-up to the vote in some ways resembles that of a Latin American country. The legislative assembly's current chairman, Aleksandr Uss, recently called the contest "very difficult... MORE