The chairman of the Russian Duma's Defense Committee, retired Gen. Lev Rokhlin, told reporters on February 28 that he backs embattled Russian defense minister Igor Rodionov and agrees with Rodionov that the armed forces should get increased funding. Rokhlin also suggested that President Boris Yeltsin... MORE

China has signaled its dissatisfaction with the pace at which demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border is being implemented. A Foreign Ministry spokesman on February 28 called for the process to be completed this year, and took a swipe at "certain people in Russia and the... MORE

Authorities in Tokyo have denied an earlier Japanese television report that accused a Russian oil recovery vessel of spying on Japanese coastal defense facilities. An official of Japan's maritime safety agency said on February 28 that such espionage activities would have been impossible, while Japan's... MORE

Russian and Slovak officials are drawing up a contract for the sale of six Ka-50 ÒBlack SharkÓ helicopter gunships to Slovakia and expect the deal to be closed later this month. The Russians claim the single-seat Ka-50 is both cheaper than and superior to the... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin has signed into law a bill instituting the post of human rights commissioner for the Russian Federation. The Duma now has 30 days in which to elect a candidate. (Itar-Tass, February 26) Russia has been without a human rights commissioner since... MORE

News that President Yeltsin has ordered the Russian Foreign Ministry to sign the sixth protocol of the European Convention on human rights, outlawing capital punishment, has received a mixed reception in Moscow political circles. The move was welcomed by the Duma's Yabloko faction, which said... MORE

Russia's general prosecutor, Yuri Skuratov, has charged that conditions in Russian prisons are so bad that they "could trigger an explosion." Skuratov says Russia is failing to live up both to its own laws and to the commitments it undertook on joining the Council of... MORE

Secrecy continues to envelop the talks held -- and whatever decisions may have been taken -- by the Russian, Uzbek, Kazakstani, and Kyrgyz defense ministers on February 25 in Tashkent. Their "working meeting" discussed possible joint responses to the Talibans' recent advance into northern Afghanistan... MORE

In a nationwide radio address this morning, President Boris Yeltsin had harsh words for the Russian government, saying he has serious doubts about whether it will be able to meet the targets of this year's federal budget. Yeltsin said he signed the budget into law... MORE

Izvestia claims to have seen a draft of the state of the nation address that President Yeltsin will deliver to the Russian parliament on March 6. The newspaper says that the economic aspects of the draft bear the imprint of Anatoly Chubais, Yeltsin's chief aide... MORE