A recent poll by the Public Opinion institute found that Russian citizens have an extremely low level of faith in public institutions. The most trusted institution was the Orthodox Church, trusted by 54 percent of the respondents, followed by the army with 42 percent. Next... MORE

Some 400 workers from the Zvezda nuclear submarine repair plant blocked the Trans-Siberian railway yesterday 20 miles north of the Pacific port city Vladivostok. They were protesting that they had not been paid for ten months (see item that follows). Police clad in full riot-... MORE

Top Russian officials yesterday gave conflicting versions as to just how soon -- and to whom -- the government planned to make payments to clear up the Defense Ministry's huge debts to its employees and suppliers. Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin was quoted as saying that... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin killed two dogs with one bone yesterday when he sacked the highly unpopular governor of Kemerovo oblast, Mikhail Kislyuk, and replaced him with the most disaffected member of the Russian government, CIS affairs minister Aman Tuleev. (ORT, July 1) Kemerovo is the... MORE

An incendiary letter from Gen. Lev Rokhlin, head of the Russian Duma's Defense Committee, continued to reverberate this week, as Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin denounced the general for his actions while participants of a "Russia is Our Home" political meeting refused to allow Rokhlin near... MORE

The lawyer for retired Russian Navy captain Aleksandr Nikitin said yesterday that Federal Security Service (FSB) investigators had on June 17 brought new treason charges against Nikitin. He was arrested in February of last year for work he had done for the Norwegian environmental organization... MORE

The Ka-52 "Alligator" multi-role helicopter -- under development for 18 years -- made its first flight yesterday, at the Kamov airfield near Moscow. The craft is a two-seat version of the Ka-50 gunship, and the company hopes to sell it both in Russia and abroad... MORE

President Yeltsin's press office has rejected an accusation by the Speaker of the Russian Duma, Gennady Seleznev, that the president broke a federal law when he appointed his daughter as his official image adviser. Seleznev had said the appointment of Tatyana Dyachenko violated Russia's civil... MORE

Azerbaijani president Haidar Aliev issued a decree on June 25 calling for the shrinking and reorganization of the government's central administration, as well as for more rapid privatization, banking reform, and increased assistance to small business. (Reuter, Russian agencies, June 25) This decree appears to... MORE

Addressing a general conference of the ruling Armenian Pan-National Movement, President Levon Ter-Petrosian proposed hard-liner Vano Siradegian for the post of party leader and came down hard on reformer Eduard Yegorian, who also seeks that post. Ter-Petrosian accused Yegorian of showing "disrespect toward the viewpoints... MORE