The Duma's failure to approve the government's draft budget before the end of the year means that, under Russian law, the government will have to set monthly spending for the first quarter of 1998 at the same (low) level as actual spending in the first... MORE

The Duma will not be pleased by reports that Yeltsin wants to abandon the system under which the Duma is currently elected and switch to an exclusively "first-past-the-post" system. At present, one half of the Duma's 450 members are elected by majority vote in individual... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin spent three hours at his desk in the Kremlin yesterday, after which he obeyed his doctors' orders and returned to the Barvikha sanitarium. The doctors have advised Yeltsin to rest until the New Year, but his spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said yesterday that... MORE

Chechen deputy premier and chairman of the "Islamic Order" movement, Movladi Udugov, has dismissed reports that President Yeltsin has been condemned to death by an Islamic court. Addressing a rally of his supporters in Grozny on December 20, Chechen field commander Salman Raduev read out... MORE

Two hundred Russian coalminers blocked the Trans-Siberian railway for eight hours yesterday. They were protesting the fact that they have not been paid their wages for between five and seven months. (RTR, December 22) Both freight and passenger transport were disrupted. This is the second... MORE

A group of 80 to 100 armed men attacked a Russian tank battalion deployed near the Dagestani city of Buinaksk yesterday in the early morning hours. After a gun battle lasting some two hours, the gunmen tried to escape across the Chechen border, taking with... MORE

"The Chechen side hopes that a full-scale bilateral treaty which recognizes Chechnya's independent status and establishes diplomatic relations between the two sides will be signed during Boris Yeltsin's visit to Grozny," Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov told a press conference in Nazran on December 20. "The... MORE

After spending three hours in his Kremlin office on Tuesday (see item below), Russian president Boris Yeltsin returned to the Barvikha sanitarium. At a press conference, presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky described Yeltsin's rehospitalization as pursuant to a compromise which Yeltsin and worked out with his... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin returned to work in the Kremlin this morning. (BBC, December 23) He had been nearly two weeks in a sanitarium suffering from what doctors said was a viral infection. His doctors have advised him to take a holiday. But, to prove his... MORE

Top officials from the defense establishments of Russia and India yesterday wound up four days of closed-door talks in New Delhi aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries and, more specifically, at reaching agreement on specific purchases of Russian military equipment by India... MORE