On March 10, Russian President Boris Yeltsin will meet with clan elders from the North Caucasus. Yeltsin says the meeting will not be "merely ceremonial" and that he intends to have "a frank discussion about the problems of the region." Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov has... MORE

A significant number of women serve in the Russian military, recent statistics indicate. They are, however, concentrated in only a few support fields. They also lag far behind their male colleagues in reaching higher rank and command positions. Of the more than 120,000 women serving... MORE

In an informal conversation with Russia's Independent TV, Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov revealed the contours of the shadow cabinet being put together by the Communists and their nationalist and agrarian allies. Oddly enough, there seemed to be no place for Zyuganov himself in the... MORE

Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant was back in the news over the weekend following a March 4 announcement by Russian officials that they had reached a preliminary agreement to build a third and fourth reactor at the controversial facility. If finalized, the agreement would represent... MORE

UN officials indicated late last week that Moscow has made a move to have a Russian appointed as a deputy to Richard Butler, the chairman of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) overseeing weapons inspections in Iraq. Butler, an Australian, currently has one deputy -- American... MORE

Kazakhstan's government wants to join the 132-country World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1998. So declared Minister Erjan Utembaev, head of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reform, at a government meeting in Akmola on February 24. (Russian agencies, February 24) The meeting established a committee... MORE

Senior officials, accompanying President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on an inspection tour of Hrodna region on March 4-5, complained about "Polonization" and the growing influence of the Roman Catholic Church in the region. Catholics form to this day the majority of believers in that western region of... MORE

Russian aviation officials have placed great hopes on the Tupolev Tu-204 jet airliner to compete on equal terms with the best new American and European planes. The program, however, might be in trouble. An industry source said on February 20 that only one Tu-204 had... MORE

The Russian government yesterday intensified the propaganda barrage against Latvia following the riot staged by more than 1,000 "Russian-speakers" in downtown Riga. (See Monitor, March 5) Russian presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky yesterday cited Boris Yeltsin as "unreservedly sharing" Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov's assessment of the... MORE

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin wound up two days of talks in Islamabad on March 4 -- talks that included meetings with Pakistan's prime minister and its foreign minister. Karasin suggested that the exchanges had been friendly and constructive, but there was little in... MORE