On May 9, the Latvian parliament amended the country's electoral legislation, eliminating the requirements of Latvian language proficiency for candidates in parliamentary and local elections. In practice, this means that Russophones with poor or no knowledge of the Latvian language will be able to run... MORE

The left and right wings of Ukraine's newest parliament (Verkhovna Rada) have joined forces against the pro-government United Ukraine and United Social Democratic Party (USDP) factions. Their goal, however, is not simply to condemn the foul play of pro-government forces in the election. Instead, these... MORE

Having lost his fight for the speakership of Crimea's parliament, Leonid Hrach has declared that he will run in the next Ukrainian presidential election, scheduled for 2004 (see the Monitor, April 23, May 3). As a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), which... MORE

With only a few days remaining before a key meeting of NATO and Russian officials in Reykjavik, the two sides appear still to have come up short in their efforts to hammer out a new and potentially historic cooperation agreement. Russian and NATO negotiators had... MORE

As of this writing, the death toll from yesterday's terrorist bombing in Kaspiisk, Dagestan, stands at forty-one, including seventeen children and nineteen military servicemen. Some ninety people wounded in the blast remain hospitalized. The Dagestani authorities declared today a day of mourning for the victims... MORE

Kavkaz-Center, the news agency that serves as a mouthpiece for the radical Islamist wing of the Chechen rebel movement, ran a commentary today on its website, Kavkaz.org, about the Kaspiisk bombing. Noting that President Vladimir Putin yesterday called the perpetrators of the terrorist attack "scum"... MORE

Western military and civilian officials involved with Moldovan affairs believe that the next few weeks will show whether Russia intends to fulfill or tear up its international obligation to withdraw its arsenals and troops from Moldova by December 2002. Unless the scrapping and withdrawal of... MORE

A major terrorist bombing took place today in the Dagestani city of Kaspiisk, some 14 kilometers southeast of the republic's capital, Makhachkala. According to preliminary reports, an explosive device went off at around 9:45 AM, local time, either 150 meters or 300 meters (depending on... MORE

Next week in Reykjavik, NATO will hold the first in a series of high-level meetings that may, within a few short months, invite up to seven candidate countries to begin membership negotiations, and offer noncandidate Russia a seat in a specially created "NATO at 20"... MORE

In yet another symbol of Russia's post-Cold War fall from its former great power status, Russian and Vietnamese officials on May 2 lowered the Russian flag for the last time over the Cam Ranh Bay naval base in southern Vietnam. The May 2 ceremony, which... MORE