Renegade Chechen field commander Salman Raduev told journalists in Djohar-gala yesterday that his "Army of General Dudaev" was responsible for the explosion that took place last month at military depots in the Jewish Autonomous oblast. At the time, the Russian military said the blast was... MORE

The controversial commander of Russia's Far Eastern Military District is reported to be a candidate for the vacant post of ground forces commander in chief. Col. Gen. Viktor Chechevatov, said to be friendly with Boris Yeltsin, would succeed Army Gen. Vladimir Semenov, who was relieved... MORE

Smolensk police have reportedly arrested eight people in the nearby town of Safonovo on the suspicion that they intended to smuggle two capsules of radioactive cesium-137 out of Russia. The capsules, found in a barn in Safonovo, were said by the police to have been... MORE

U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright held talks in Moscow yesterday with Russian counterpart Yevgeny Primakov, but , despite a telephone intervention by President Boris Yeltsin, the two diplomats made clear afterwards that they had achieved little in their effort to boost negotiations on a... MORE

One and a half million Russian citizens took part in demonstrations in Moscow and 900 other Russian cities yesterday to mark the May Day holiday, Russian police estimated. All the rallies passed off peacefully. As on previous occasions, the organizers and the police gave different... MORE

Army Gen. Vladimir Semenov, who was accused of embezzlement and forced to resign last month as commander in chief of Russia's ground forces, has returned to a warm welcome in his native city Cherkessk, capital of the Republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. Local residents encouraged him to... MORE

The grand old man of Russian letters, Academician Dmitry Likhachev, has addressed an open letter to President Boris Yeltsin. Likhachev is concerned about rumors that members of the presidential administration are drafting legislation to establish a constitutional monarchy in Russia and the accession to the... MORE

The Ukrainian Communist and Socialist parties and leftist labor groups organized well-attended rallies in Kiev, in Crimea's capital Simferopol, and in eastern Ukraine's russified industrial centers Donetsk and Kharkiv. Attendance ranged from 5,000 to 10,000 in these cities, with smaller figures elsewhere. The main slogans... MORE

A Ukrainian military delegation headed by Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk today completes a week-long visit to the U.S., during which it was shown army, air force, naval, and marine bases, modern military hardware, and special-force exercises. U.S. defense secretary William Cohen accepted an invitation to... MORE

Azerbaijan's former president, Abulfaz Elchibey, was elected on April 30 to the post of chairman of the Democratic Congress, an alliance of seven opposition parties led by the Popular Front and the Musavat party. Participants at the conference indicated that Elchibey plans to return next... MORE