Pleading lack of a quorum, the Chechen parliament has for the second time refused President Aslan Maskhadov's request to be granted special powers for two years. Maskhadov wants to be able to appoint ministers, override laws and decisions passed by parliament, declare a state of... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin yesterday resubmitted the Chemical Weapons Convention to the Duma and urged lawmakers to ratify it. The Duma rejected the convention in April. The president's representative to the Duma, Aleksandr Kotenkov, said the new bill meets all the legislators' earlier demands. Unless... MORE

Russia's State Duma has instructed three of its committees -- those on agrarian issues, property and privatization, and legislation -- to examine the law on land adopted last week in the first reading by the Saratov Oblast Duma. The Saratov bill seeks to legalize the... MORE

A man has been detained by police in connection with the murder last August of St. Petersburg's deputy governor and privatization chief, Mikhail Manevich. However, the man has not yet been charged and Russian prosecutor general Yury Skuratov warned reporters yesterday that it was too... MORE

According to Georgian foreign minister Irakly Menagarishvili, Georgia "will leave the CIS if affiliation with it does not correspond with Georgia's national interests." Tbilisi's decision will depend on Russia's policies toward Georgia, Menagarishvili said, adding that Shevardnadze had stated this at the CIS summit. The... MORE

President Leonid Kuchma told the press yesterday that CIS countries do not need a "common market" as Russia urged at last week's CIS summit, but simply unimpeded trade among member countries. Despite a "recent, healthy warming up in Ukrainian-Russian relations," Moscow is waging an "economic... MORE

Indian defense minister Mulayam Singh Yadav might not have been able to buy a Russian aircraft carrier during his recent visit to Moscow (see the Monitor, October 23) but the Indian authorities on October 24 managed to take custody of one in their own coastal... MORE

Russia's Defense Ministry plans to buy 6 Tu-160 "Blackjack" strategic bombers from the Kazan Aircraft Production Association, the head of the Tupolev organization said yesterday. (Russian agencies, October 28) The supersonic Tu-160 -- the largest bomber in the world -- was developed in the late... MORE

Approaching the conclusion of a week-long visit to the Middle East (see also, Monitor, October 27) , Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov yesterday returned to an old Kremlin theme by criticizing Washington's dominant peace-making role in the region and calling for broader participation -- by... MORE

Russia's fledgling stock market suffered a shock yesterday as Russian stocks reacted to the crisis on world markets by falling almost 20 percent -- the biggest one-day drop in the market's short life. Trading was suspended for three hours but the market began to rally... MORE