The authorities in Nakhodka in Russia's Far East have declared a state of emergency since the city has run out of fuel. The population is without heating and light in subzero temperatures. Primorsky Krai, of which Nakhodka is part, has suffered repeated fuel shortages in... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday criticized what it called an attempt by the United States and Britain to exert psychological pressure on diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Iraq. Foreign Ministry spokesman Valery Nesterushkin's remarks followed warnings from Washington and London that this weekend's mission... MORE

The Russian government is facing yet another clash with the Duma today: The Communist-dominated parliament is to debate the federal budget in its fourth and supposedly final reading. Duma leaders are angry that the government has, in their eyes, broken the rules by introducing a... MORE

President Imomali Rahmonov on February 17 and 18 publicly demanded that the United Tajik Opposition take action against its own supporters who allegedly violate the military agreements between the government and the UTO. Rahmonov complained that opposition field commanders who control the eastern approaches to... MORE

In Ukraine, political forces that openly seek to restore the USSR are based in the eastern part of the country and in Crimea. Their electorate consists primarily of ethnic Russians and, secondarily, of Russified Ukrainians. This fact, however, does not make the diehard Soviet movements... MORE

Tuesday's Washington Times' report that Belarus was about to sign a contract to provide tank engines and other spare parts to Iran highlights a painful truth for Russia: Its CIS partners have recently been making inroads into the shrinking world arms market at Russia's expense.... MORE

Russia's Supreme Court has ruled that a decree by Ingushetia's President Ruslan Aushev, calling a referendum in the republic, runs counter to federal law. Aushev has set the referendum for March 1, the same day as the presidential election in the republic, in which he... MORE

Meanwhile, following a barrage of harsh criticism of the U.S. position on Iraq, including several by the Russian president, officials in Moscow seemed over the past few days to be moderating their rhetoric. That tendency was evident in Yeltsin's state-of-the-nation speech on February 17 (see... MORE

Russia's government has admitted that Russian firms conducted negotiations with Iraqi officials in 1995 over the sale of equipment that could be used in the production of biological weapons, the Washington Post reported yesterday. The newspaper quoted UN officials who said that the admission by... MORE

Russian political leaders, who have spearheaded the international effort to hammer out a diplomatic resolution to the current crisis in the Persian Gulf, were buoyed yesterday by two events. The first was President Clinton's February 17 address to U.S. military personnel in which Clinton muted... MORE