Although the Russian-U.S. summit will apparently go forward as planned, the same cannot be said for a Russian-Chinese summit that had been scheduled for September 4-5. On August 21--two days before Boris Yeltsin sacked his government--it was announced that Chinese President Jiang Zemin had informed... MORE

All these topics are likely to remain on the agenda for this week's summit talks. But Russia's economic meltdown and the dismissal by Boris Yeltsin of his reform-oriented cabinet--and its likely replacement by a team less committed to Western-style market reforms--have shifted the focus of... MORE

The Clinton administration continued to prepare over the weekend for this week's long-awaited summit meeting in Moscow between Presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin. The preparations come despite some ten days of tumult that have left the itinerary for the two-day meeting in a shambles... MORE

The Japanese government called this morning for an emergency meeting of the G-7 group of major industrialized countries to discuss the deepening crisis in Russia's economy and related economic concerns. (BBC, August 31) RUSSIA'S POWER-SHARING AGREEMENT UNDER THREAT.

The power-sharing agreement hammered out yesterday by Russia's acting Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and parliamentary leaders was under threat this morning as President Boris Yeltsin and Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov both threatened not to back it. The agreement, painstakingly negotiated over the last few days... MORE

The Taliban forces have recently brought most of northern Afghanistan under their control, expanding their domain to nearly 90 percent of Afghanistan's territory. Having pushed back the ethnic Uzbek, Tajik and Shia Muslim forces of Afghanistan's "northern alliance," the Taliban seem poised to establish themselves... MORE

Sergeev's upbeat assessment of the Defense Ministry's accomplishments to date and his matter-of-fact rendering of the government's plans for future military reform would seem to raise more than a few questions. It is not clear, for example, that the military restructuring and force reductions implemented... MORE

On July 30 of this year, Russian President Boris Yeltsin approved a document setting out the fundamental principles--or concepts--of Russian military development to the year 2005. (See the Monitor, August 4) In a long interview granted on August 12 (Federal News Service, August 12), Russian... MORE

Russia's State Duma contributed to the general panic by refusing to commit itself to interrupting its holiday to debate the government's stabilization measures. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov met yesterday with Prime Minister Kirienko, but said afterwards only that the Duma "may" agree to convene in... MORE

The heads of Russia's commercial television companies are complaining that a presidentially ordered reorganization will put them in an unfair financial position and increase the state's power over independent broadcasters. They accuse the Kremlin of trying to assert control over independent broadcasters in anticipation of... MORE