By Sergei Kolchin After Gazprom, Russia's oil companies are the main tax contributors to budgets at various levels. They also head the list of budget debtors. According to State Tax Service statistics, as of July 1, 1998, the oil companies' debt to the federal budget... MORE

Russia entered the new year with the financial wolf at the door. Because of its failure last December to make a US$362 million interest payment on its Soviet-era debt, the Fitch IBCA credit rating agency this week downgraded PRINs--Russian bonds covering US$22.4 billion in Soviet-era... MORE

By Vladimir Mironov HISTORIC RELATIONS WITHIN RUSSIA For many years individual Russian territories had "twinning" links with each other and with towns and regions of foreign countries. Such contacts between republics, krais, okrugs, oblasts and their "capital" cities tended to be limited in the past... MORE

By Andrei Kalganov The difference between reading tea-leaves and professional forecasting is that the former is based on transcendental considerations. But in Russia these aspects, which do not lend themselves to rational analysis, are often the determining factor in formulating what is termed the "voice... MORE

By Volodymyr Zviglyanich National security questions are traditionally seen as encompassing predominantly military and political problems--potential conflicts between countries and international threats. The reasons for these conflicts may be trade wars, redistribution of spheres of influence, territorial claims by countries and, more recently--as demonstrated by... MORE

Russia's political crisis worsened over the past fortnight as few took seriously a new initiative by the Kremlin ostensibly aimed at battling crime, corruption and political extremism. There was also little to cheer about in the economy. Russia's upper house of parliament emerged as a... MORE

By Andrei A. Piontkovsky THE TRADITIONAL BALANCE OF TERROR As is well known, beginning in the early 1960s, strategic stability between the USSR and the United States was based on a balance of terror--on the ability of either side to inflict unacceptable damage to its... MORE

By Aleksandr Buzgalin A PRETEXT FOR ANTI-COMMUNIST HYSTERIA More than three weeks ago the press carried brief--and imprecise--reports of a pronouncement by Albert Makashov, an official of Russia's Communist Party (KPRF) and a State Duma deputy, that if it came to it he was prepared... MORE

By Sergei Klimov The first concerns about a possible deterioration in the food situation in Russia began to appear immediately after the Kirienko government's announcement last August of a moratorium on the repayment of the foreign debt by Russian financial institutions. The foreign currency exchange... MORE

Russia's domestic struggles continued over the past fortnight as a fleeting visit to the Kremlin by Boris Yeltsin produced yet another shakeup of the presidential administration. Neither the personnel reshuffle nor Yeltsin's call for a renewed battle against corruption appeared to do much to improve... MORE