"War in Dagestan is virtually inevitable," Basyr Dadaev, the leader of the National Council of the Chechens of Dagestan, has told the Monitor. In Dadaev's opinion, the Dagestani authorities are deliberately trying to provoke a conflict between Dagestani Chechens and the republic's other ethnic groups.... MORE

The pro-government "Russia is Our Home" (NDR) faction in the Russian parliament met yesterday and expelled the controversial Gen. Lev Rokhlin from its ranks. Rokhlin has launched a loud campaign against the government's proposed reform of the army, which he calls an act of national... MORE

Moscow has reacted strongly in recent days to the September 6 announcement by Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif that his country has the right to acquire nuclear weapons in order to ensure its security. Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov, along with the ministry's chief spokesman,... MORE

Officials in two of Russia's neighbors -- Georgia and Ukraine -- talked yesterday of plans to market new military aircraft, but both will be heavily dependent on Russia for these plans to succeed. Ukraine's minister for industrial policy, Vasyl Hureyev, said that the new Antonov... MORE

First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais is leading the Russian sugar industry's charge against Ukrainian imports. While protection from Ukrainian sugar may raise incomes in Russia's sugar industry, the heavy-handedness with which this goal is being pursued suggests that neither Chubais nor the Russian government... MORE

The "alcohol war" on the Georgian-Russian border (see Monitor, September 9) is developing larger political dimensions and is also drawing attention to broader problems created by Russian border troops in Georgia. The first deputy commander of Russia's border troops, Col. Gen. Aleksandr Tymko, warned on... MORE

Russian first deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov has been named as chairman of a special new government commission overseeing the implementation of production-sharing agreements in the Russian Federation. (Itar-Tass, September 8) These agreements aim to encourage foreign investment in natural resources by guaranteeing investors that... MORE

As of last night, Chechen and Russian negotiators meeting in Moscow had still not reached agreement on a deal on the transportation of oil from the Caspian to the Black Sea across Chechen territory. (NTV, September 8) No explanation was offered for the holdup. A... MORE

The Japanese government confirmed yesterday that Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will meet informally with Russian president Boris Yeltsin in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk on November 1-2. Government sources said that during the talks Hashimoto would seek to move forward on finding a resolution to... MORE

Gregory Lerner, who emigrated to Israel in 1989 and is believed to be a Russian mafia member, was charged on September 8 with blackmail and fraud -- including an alleged attempt to blackmail former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres. (AP, September 7) Lerner was arrested... MORE