NIKITA MIKHALKOV--RUSSIA'S ANSWER TO RONALD REAGAN? By Aleksandr Buzgalin and Ludmilla Bulavka When the Russian actor and director Nikita Mikhalkov announced his intention to run for president of Russia in 2000, no one was particularly surprised: People have been talking about Mikhalkov's political ambitions for... MORE

YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY TAX IN RUSSIA By Valery Virkunen The debt which the Russian government owes to budget enterprises and organizations for salaries grows year after year and now totals, according to the State Committee for Statistics, 20 billion rubles--roughly US$1 billion. Doctors,... MORE

Moscow appeared afflicted over the past fortnight by the ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." At home, Russia's domestic political scene descended into a bizarre and unseemly morass of outlandish charges, unexpected resignations, and ominous raids by Russian special forces. This domestic... MORE

By Sergei Kolchin On the threshold of 1999 the Russian oil industry suddenly found itself again faced with a difficult choice: to progress along the familiar lines of restructuring by developing private holdings and encouraging competition between them, or to return to some form of... MORE

By Vladimir Mironov During the relatively short history of the sovereign Russian Federation the democratic forces have already managed to become a byword for disunity. Many democratic politicians see this disunity as the main reason for their failure at the ballot box. Because of discord... MORE

By Andrei Piontkovsky In recent years every political spring in Russia has arrived hand in hand with euphoria over Russian-Belarusan reunification. Politicians of all shades make elegant speeches about brotherhood, Slavic unity, integration in the post-Soviet space and so on. With the sound of peals... MORE

By Brian Whitmore ST. PETERSBURG--The investigation into the assassination of federal lawmaker Galina Starovoitova has taken a bizarre and sinister twist: Local journalists are being interrogated and pressured into giving testimony against her press secretary, Ruslan Linkov, who survived the November 20 attack. Prior to... MORE

Russia's political turmoil continued over the past fortnight, as President Boris Yeltsin's enduring health problems precipitated what appeared to be conflict between the Kremlin and Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. But the country's domestic problems seemed in no way to discourage Russia's political elite from seeking... MORE

By Tatyana Matsyuk Since the events of 17 August, discussions of the causes of Russia's crisis and of its present and future have become commonplace not just in the Russian press, but in the world's media. These discussions were brought to a head, particularly, by... MORE

By Elena Dikun On December 19, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov held a conference to launch his "Fatherland" movement, making it clear to everyone that from now on he is an independent political player and an undoubted presidential candidate. The other players on the center-left and... MORE