Besides installing allies of President Vladimir Putin and Gazprom chief Aleksei Miller, the personnel changes at that partially state-owned gas monopoly, which coincided with the end of Miller's first 100 days as CEO, seem to have been aimed, as the Polit.ru website put it, at... MORE

Visiting Finland on September 2-3, President Vladimir Putin toned down Russia's objections to the Baltic states' goal of joining NATO. Queried repeatedly by the media on that issue, Putin chose to reply more in sorrow and feigned astonishment than in anger. At the concluding joint... MORE

In recent days, Armenia has moved toward even closer relations with Russia and military cooperation with Syria. President Robert Kocharian's closest associate, Serge Sarkisian, led both. Sarkisian combines the posts of defense minister, head of the National Security Council and chairman of the Armenian side... MORE

In an article published on August 30 by the Moscow Times, the well-known Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer (for his analysis of Russian arms sales figures see the Monitor, August 29) casts a critical eye on the manpower cuts envisaged under the Kremlin's current military... MORE

An election-related scandal broke out in Rostov-on-Don on August 28, when the oblast election commission refused to register Leonid Ivanchenko, a State Duma deputy and leader of the region's communists, as a candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election, which is set for September 23. The... MORE

In all three Baltic states, the transportation sector is a major contributor to economic performance. In Estonia, the transportation and communication sector accounted for 11.8 percent of GDP last year, in Latvia the share was 14.0 percent, and in Lithuania 10.1 percent. In 2000, because... MORE

In the future, the Baltic states' dependence on Russian transit may be more problematic. Since independence, the Balts have tried to capitalize on their previous role by continuing to advertise themselves as a gateway to and from Russia and the other former Soviet republics. In... MORE

Belarusan President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is impregnably positioned for reelection to a five-year term in the upcoming electoral parody. He has the choice of staging either a first-round landslide on September 9 or, for extra window dressing, a runoff victory two weeks later. Irrespective of the... MORE

Russian efforts to continue improving bilateral ties with Iran while reinventing itself as a more even-handed player in the broader Middle East peace process suffered a setback yesterday when Iran's defense chief unexpectedly postponed a visit to Moscow. Admiral Ali Shamkhani was to have begun... MORE

Although the pace of industrial production moderated somewhat in July, according to the state statistical committee Goskomstat, the year-on-year results in February through June have taken most economists by surprise. Industrial growth has been boosted by domestic demand, while export performance has been better than... MORE