Yesterday, November 7, was the 84th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. While the day remains an official holiday in Russia, exactly five years ago yesterday then President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree renaming it the Day of Accord and Reconciliation. In Moscow, the Communist Party... MORE

Polls taken prior to the November 7 holiday found a growth in what the Polit.ru website called "conservative-restorationist" sentiment with Russian society. In a poll carried out November 2-6 by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), 63 percent of the respondents... MORE

Preliminary estimates of the developments in Russian GDP by end-use in real terms for the first half of 2001 became available in October, illustrating that the continued surge in consumption and investment is boosting aggregate output and imports this year (Goskomstat, October 2001). Both consumption... MORE

The numbers on economic performance from the State Statistical Committee Goskomstat indicate that Russia's economic growth accelerated in the third quarter of 2001 despite weaker growth in exports (Goskomstat, October 22). In the third quarter, output of basic goods and services increased 6.4 percent, compared... MORE

The political situation in Georgia is stabilizing, though not normalizing in the wake of the October 30-November 1 mass protests in Tbilisi. The crisis, triggered by the State Security Ministry's raid on the Rustavi-2 independent television station (see the Monitor, November 5) has dramatized the... MORE

Although ruled by an autocrat whose colleagues have a tendency to meddle in the economy in pursuit of their own personal gain, the Kazakh economy is becoming one of the most developed economies in the CIS, including Russia. Three factors are contributing to Kazakhstan's success:... MORE

In the first half of 2001, Kazakhstan's banks posted consolidated net profits of 4.9 billion tenge, up 53 percent from the first half of 2001 (Interfax, August 2001). Banking has been a rapidly growing business since problems in the financial system began to ease in... MORE

With preparations for next week's summit meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush entering the homestretch, the Russian leader appears this week to have sent some of the strongest signals to date that Moscow is prepared to deal on the issue of missile... MORE

On Monday (November 5), Russia observed Intelligence Agent Day. By design or coincidence, Aleksei Kudrin, the deputy prime minister who doubles as finance minister, marked the occasion by officially presenting Viktor Zubkov, Russia's new anti-moneylaundering tsar, to the Finance Ministry's collegium. A former deputy tax... MORE

Following a package of changes to its foreign exchange rate regime this summer, Uzbekistan has taken further steps to liberalize cross-border transactions, including a sharp devaluation of the official exchange rate. Supplementary price controls are supposed to protect consumers from the possible inflationary impact of... MORE