The Russian media report that the influence of another Chechen government official who advocates a tough policy toward Moscow -- First Deputy Premier Movladi Udugov -- is also on the rise. Udugov, who currently heads the commission for negotiating with Russia, is to be foreign... MORE

The Presidents of Ukraine and Poland, Leonid Kuchma and Aleksander Kwasniewski, jointly inaugurated on January 3 the Krakovets-Korczowa border crossing and customs station, tipped to become one of Europe's largest and busiest. Capable of handling up to 5,000 motor vehicles daily, the 12-lane station is... MORE

On January 1, President Aslan Maskhadov dissolved Chechnya's cabinet of ministers and asked First Deputy Premier Shamil Basaev to form a new government. Basaev, the former field commander who led the 1995 hostage-taking raid on Budennovsk, presently occupies the post of Deputy Premier with expanded... MORE

Duma speaker Gennady Seleznev has described 1997 as the year that parliament taught the government that, "in the future, not a single reform can be adopted without the Duma." (ORT, December 25) Relations between the president and the opposition-dominated parliament, which were close to a... MORE

On January 1, the Russian government redenominated the ruble, lopping three zeroes off the end. The old notes are to be phased out but, until the end of this year, both old and new notes, along with revived kopeck coins, will be legal tender. The... MORE

The Kremlin moved a step closer -- in formal terms at least -- to injecting greater order into the functioning of its security and defense establishments when President Yeltsin in late December approved a "National Security Concept" drafted by the country's Security Council. The lengthy... MORE

On December 24, the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, passed an unexpected motion of censure on First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov. That action was followed two days later by a Duma resolution calling on President Yeltsin to sack Nemtsov. Parliament... MORE

Russia experienced a burst of political activity at the end of 1997, following Yeltsin's return to the Kremlin after two weeks' absence recovering from the flu, and before the New Year and Orthodox Christmas festivities enveloped the country. On December 24, the State Duma acceded... MORE

Yeltsin's words were not just idle moralizing. His emphasis on the errors of Marxist analysis echoes the charges of "Bolshevism" hurled at First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais by his sworn enemy, financier Boris Berezovsky, during a press conference on December 24. Berezovsky went on... MORE

Lithuanian-American Valdas Adamkus, supported mainly by conservative parties, narrowly won yesterday's presidential runoff against the younger, left-of-center candidate, Arturas Paulauskas. The Central Electoral Commission announced the outcome this morning. (International agencies, January 5) ...Analysis in Tomorrow's Monitor