The open letter to the Russian government to rethink its policy toward Chechnya, issued this week by four leading Russian politicians, is attracting wide attention in the Russian media. Many newspapers speculate that the "alliance of the four" represents the germ of a new political... MORE

Visiting Voronezh Oblast south of Moscow yesterday, Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko said he shared the concern of "the four" over the situation in Chechnya and the Northern Caucasus. Kirienko said he would happily issue "a hundred appeals, if it would do any good." Chechnya's problems,... MORE

The potential importance of a coalition between Chernomyrdin and Lebed, backed with Berezovsky's money, can hardly be overestimated. Conventional wisdom has it that the next president of the Russian Federation will be whoever defeats Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the left-wing Popular Patriotic Union, in the... MORE

The Chechen Foreign Ministry expressed "serious concern" yesterday over the joint exercises involving Russian army and Interior Ministry troops being held all this week across the border from Chechnya in Stavropol Krai, Dagestan and North Ossetia. (RTR, July 28; and see the Monitor, July 28)... MORE

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation, in Kyiv since July 23, and the Ukrainian government yesterday moved closer to finalizing the conditions of a US$2.5 billion EFF (extended fund facility) credit. The IMF expects President Leonid Kuchma to reduce the expenditure side of the state... MORE

Moscow and Abkhazia yesterday issued closely similar assessments of the talks just held in Geneva toward a settlement of the Abkhazia conflict. The talks were held in the new, UN-sponsored format--established earlier this year--which include the main Western countries as observers alongside the mediator Russia.... MORE

The oil trading company CCL Oil Ltd. said on July 20 that it had lodged a formal complaint with Kazakhstan's Supreme Court. The issue: the Kazakhstani government's treatment of the concession CCL Oil won last year to manage the Pavlodar oil refinery. The company disputes... MORE

The deputy chairman of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee, Maratkaly Nukenov, presented yesterday his agency's latest findings regarding official corruption in Kazakhstan. According to Nukenov, the NSC has uncovered 112 cases of criminal corruption in the Internal Affairs Ministry, twenty-five cases among akims (regional administration chiefs)... MORE

Chairing a session of Kyrgyzstan's National Security Council yesterday, President Askar Akaev tasked the relevant ministries and agencies to ensure the country's "readiness for a situation of armed conflict." Akaev decided to maintain the army's existing strength, as opposed to reducing it. At the same... MORE

Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov yesterday reiterated Moscow's concerns over the recent nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan. With equal emphasis, however, he restated Russia's opposition to the leveling of international sanctions against either New Delhi or Islamabad. Speaking to reporters in Manila during... MORE