Lawmakers from regions all over northwestern Russia met in Novgorod last month to discuss the form of local government that has evolved in Novgorod Oblast. The Novgorod model developed spontaneously, before the adoption of federal legislation, and gives local legislatures greater power over district budgets... MORE

Hooligans in St. Petersburg celebrated May Day by painting four statues of Lenin pink. One, which stands outside the Finland Station where Lenin arrived in April 1917 to take charge of the Russian Revolution, was cast from church bells in the 1930s and erected on... MORE

Former Security Council secretary Oleg Lobov has testified before the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office that he had nothing to do with the 1995 nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway by the Aum Shinri Kyo cult. Lobov reportedly told investigators that he had neither passed information... MORE

Russia's Romanov jewels arrived safely in Houston, Texas, over the weekend and will be shown at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts starting on May 11. The exhibit had been held up in Washington for several weeks following a bizarre dispute between the Russian government... MORE

On an official visit to Turkey, Azerbaijani president Haidar Aliev signed with his Turkish counterpart, Suleyman Demirel, a declaration on "strategic partnership." Drafted largely by Baku on the model of similar documents it has signed with Georgia and Ukraine, the declaration focuses on regional economic... MORE

A fifth round of talks yesterday between Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov and NATO secretary general Javier Solana failed to produce a breakthrough on a long-awaited NATO-Russian political agreement, but there were signals from both sides that success may be around the corner. As has... MORE

Duma deputies are scrutinizing the revised budget submitted to them on April 30, which they will debate following a formal presentation by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin on May 21. The new budget cuts spending by 108 trillion rubles to 422 trillion (80 percent of plan)... MORE

On the eve of celebrations marking the fifth anniversary of the Russian armed forces, President Boris Yeltsin was quoted in the country's main military newspaper yesterday as saying that he would press ahead with the creation of a professional army in Russia, "no matter how... MORE

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin on May 6 presented recently named fuel and energy minister Boris Nemtsov to leading officials at the ministry. (Interfax, May 6) Chernomyrdin said that "everything we do is aimed at strengthening the existing energy system, one of the most complete in... MORE

Russia is often described as "a country that colonizes itself," a state whose lack of natural borders propelled it on a 500-year expansion that sacrificed nation-building in the interests of imperial conquest. Russians cite the description of Kiev in the Primary Russian Chronicle as "the... MORE