President Boris Yeltsin's legal adviser, Mikhail Krasnov, has proposed closing the Lenin mausoleum to the public as a first step toward burying Lenin's embalmed corpse. Speaking live on Ekho Moskvy radio yesterday, Krasnov called the mausoleum a symbol of a single-party state and said it... MORE

An exhibition of works of Marc Chagall has opened for the first time ever in the artist's native Belarus. The Minsk exhibition was put together by French museums and Chagall descendants from Israel. Chagall (1887-1985) was born and spent his youth in the Belarusan town... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin has reportedly accepted the recommendation of First Deputy Premier Boris Nemtsov to resolve the energy crisis in Primorsky krai by calling early elections for the post of krai governor and mayor of the regional capital, Vladivostok. (Itar-Tass, June 16) Chagall at Last... MORE

The June 15 shooting of Larisa Nechaeva, commercial director of Russia's top soccer club, Spartak, bears all the hallmarks of a gangland killing. Following the April killing of the head of Russia's ice hockey federation, Nechaeva's death is being seen as a further sign that... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin has today annulled a decree that allowed police to detain suspects for up to 30 days without charges. The new time-limit is to be 10 days. Originally, the Kremlin said the decree was necessary to combat crime, but it was much... MORE

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov has ordered Chechnya's elite Borz (Wolf) regiment to disband, saying some members had set up roadblocks to stop cars and rob travelers. He has also disbanded the "Army of General Dudaev," which is commanded by maverick field commander Salman Raduev. Chechnya... MORE

A Kazak paratroop company and 22 U.S. military personnel are completing today a three-day exercise on Kapchagai Lake, 70 kilometers from Almaty. The exercise is described as practicing joint rescue operations in case of natural calamities. The commander of Russia's border troops, Gen. Andrei Nikolaev,... MORE

The Russian government is preparing a 500 billion ruble ($86 million) state credit for Belarus within the framework of the newly-approved Russia-Belarus Union. (Russian news agencies, June 13) The credit was announced by Russian Finance Ministry representative Viktor Mezhurutsky on June 13 at the first... MORE

Senior Azerbaijani officials and Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov have signed in Baku a package of economic agreements between the government of Azerbaijan and the city of Moscow. The agreements, mainly of intent, envisage supplying Russia's capital with Azerbaijani oil, oil products, and agricultural produce in... MORE

Bulat Okudzhava, the prominent poet, writer, and singer, died last week during a trip to Paris. Okudzhava, born in Moscow in 1924, had recently undergone heart surgery in the U.S. In the 1960s and 1970s, he achieved huge popularity among Soviet audiences. His writings circulated... MORE