In a report issued today, Amnesty International accuses Russian security forces of the widespread and systematic use of torture. The report says the victims are often members of Russia's ethnic minorities, especially Chechens, who are rounded up on suspicion of having committed a crime and... MORE

The Russian Duma yesterday rejected a Communist-sponsored bill that would have restored the Soviet-era red flag with the hammer and sickle and the old Communist national anthem (the melody alone, not the words, which hailed the "unbreakable union" of Soviet republics). The vote was 239... MORE

The Russian Duma's "Anti-NATO" group yesterday issued a statement saying that it backs President Boris Yeltsin's negative attitude toward NATO enlargement and that agreements reached at the recent Russian-U.S. summit in Helsinki cannot be interpreted as constituting Russian consent to the inclusion of Eastern European... MORE

Russian deputy foreign minister Viktor Posuvalyuk yesterday sharply denied a recent Israeli newspaper report alleging that Moscow had requested compensation from Israel in exchange for canceling a sale of SS-4 missile technology to Iran. (See Monitor, April 2) Posuvalyuk also said that Moscow had given... MORE

An official for Intergaz, a Russian company responsible for gas deliveries to Bosnia, said on March 31 that gas supplies to that country would be cut by one-fourth beginning on April 1. An earlier reduction of the same magnitude was implemented on February 24, meaning... MORE

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov is reported to have appointed Shamil Basaev as first deputy prime minister. (April 2, NTV, ORT) The news has created a sensation in Russia: until now, former information minister Movladi Udugov had been acting first deputy prime minister, and everyone expected... MORE

Although Clinton Administration officials spoke in cautiously optimistic tones of the Russian economy in remarks before the U.S.-Russian Business Council on April 1, they nevertheless warned that Moscow needs to take several important steps in order to sustain its transition to a free-market. Pointing to... MORE

The output of Russia's gold mines fell from 162 metric tons in 1991 to 123 tons in 1996. (Finansovye izvestiya, 1 April). Production lies in the hands of independent cooperatives, which are keen to open up new mines but are hampered by a shortage of... MORE

A recent newspaper story illustrates the magnitude of the defense-related environmental clean-up problem that faces Russia. Near the Siberian city of Chelyabinsk, a group of children were making bonfires using some "Queer substance" that they found at an abandoned military missile base. When local authorities... MORE

Most Russians and residents of other CIS countries have a negative attitude toward the reforms that have taken place since 1991, according to the European Union's Eurobarometer poll. The poll questioned 21,000 persons in 20 countries in November 1996. Fifty-nine percent of Russians expressed their... MORE