As the official portion of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's at-times bizarre visit to Moscow came to an end on Sunday, analysts in Russia and abroad, not to mention government officials in Moscow and Seoul, offered widely differing interpretations of what the visit had accomplished... MORE

On July 30 Gennady Khodyrev, victor in the Nizhegorod Oblast gubernatorial election, took a step few had anticipated in announcing that he would suspend his membership the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) while serving as governor (Russian agencies, July 30). The announcement came... MORE

Sergei Darkin, who was elected governor of Primorsky Krai in May, made a significant personnel announcement last week. He confirmed that he plans to nominate General-Colonel Valery Manilov, former first deputy chief of the General Staff, as Primorye's representative in the Federation Council (upper chamber... MORE

On July 23, Iran used military force to assert its claim to at least a part of Azerbaijan's Alov-Araz-Sharg offshore oilfields (see the Monitor, July 26). Tehran's move compelled the international consortium, led by British Petroleum Amoco, to suspend any further work there "until Iran... MORE

Kyrgyzstan's oil production currently meets only about 15 percent of total domestic demand. This means that the country imports about 85 percent of its requirements. In an effort to boost state revenues, the Kyrgyz parliament has unwisely decided to impose VAT on the existing excise... MORE

In the night of July 30-31, an unidentified group attempted to break into a television relay station near Chauvai, Kadamjai district, Batken Region, approximately forty kilometers inside Kyrgyzstan from the Tajik border. The guards fired and forced the intruding group to withdraw. Kyrgyz officials gave... MORE

Russia will apparently not be among those countries the international community has targeted for tough financial sanctions for not cooperating in the fight against money laundering. According to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has decided... MORE

Sources in Russia's Ministry for Economic Development and Trade have told the state's RIA-Novosti news agency that they expect in September an initial response from the United States to a draft bilateral memorandum recognizing Russia's status as a market economy. Late last month, the Russian... MORE

No repeat of the Russian economic miracle of 2000 can be expected this year, but policymakers can take some comfort in recent statistics indicating that 2001 will not be an economic washout. While Russia's economic performance in 2001 is well behind the breakneck pace set... MORE

Having peaked in April and May at 25.0 percent, the year-on-year rate of consumer price inflation declined to 23.7 percent in June, while the just-released figure for July confirms the trend of modest, but steady further improvement. Consumer prices in July were up 22.2 percent... MORE