Ukraine's most popular politician, former Premier Viktor Yushchenko, is near to finalizing his Our Ukraine bloc in preparation for the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2002. On October 8, representatives of six parties signed a formal agreement establishing the bloc. Among them were Reforms and... MORE

In a move that appeared to link long-standing Kremlin concerns regarding the declining strength of Russia's armed forces with a parallel, more pragmatic assessment of the country's geopolitical possibilities, President Vladimir Putin announced yesterday that Russian troops would soon be vacating two of Russia's most... MORE

Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor of the biweekly newspaper Novaya Gazeta, confirmed yesterday that Anna Politkovskaya, the paper's award-winning Chechnya correspondent, was forced to leave Russia following threats made against her. While various media have reported over the last week that Politkovskaya left Russia for Austria,... MORE

Some 500 residents of Naberezhnie Chelny, a town in the Republic of Tatarstan, have declared their desire to "help the Afghan people in their struggle against U.S. aggression." According to Rafis Kashapov, who heads the local branch of the Tatar Public Center in Naberezhnie Chelny,... MORE

Russia's economic performance in 2001, while well behind the heady pace registered in 2000, has nevertheless surprised most observers. GDP grew by 5.0 percent in the first half of this year, according to a preliminary Goskomstat estimate. Given the worldwide slowdown in economic growth this... MORE

Progress on bringing down the rate of consumer price inflation was finally in evidence in the third quarter of 2001 following increased upward pressure on consumer prices in the first two quarters. The inflationary pressure earlier in the year stemmed largely from the relatively loose... MORE

Amid a flurry of diplomatic maneuvering related to the U.S.-led war on terrorism and ongoing U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov traveled to New Delhi this week for an intensive two days of talks with top Indian government officials. Klebanov's... MORE

According to Russian military sources, federal positions in Chechnya have come under fire ten times over the last twenty-four hours. Unidentified attackers fired on a position held by a special police commando unit from St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast in the settlement of Starye Atagi,... MORE

The re-division of spheres of influence that began in May with the takeover of NTV television by Gazprom-Media is reverberating in Russia's regions as well. The latest battlefield is the Republic of Udmurtia, where the bone of contention is the republic's largest media outlet, the... MORE

After a downturn in relations this summer, Kyrgyzstan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are discussing a possible new loan. Following meetings with Kyrgyz government representatives in mid-September, the head of the IMF mission there announced the Fund's readiness to allocate a US$90 million credit... MORE