By Zaal Anjaparidze Georgia is witnessing a new stage in the regrouping of its domestic political forces and leading political figures for the impending post-Shevardnadze period. According to some local experts, that period could begin earlier than expected: Speculation that President Eduard Shevardnadze could resign... MORE

By Aleksandr Tsipko It has long been held that the Achilles heel of the Putin regime is the contradiction between his strong and effective policies and the weakness of the economy. Vladimir Putin has not been able to provide the necessary economic base for his... MORE

By A.I. Kolganov The development of Argentina's economy over the last ten years has been reminiscent, in many respects, of similar events that have occurred in the course of Russia's market reforms. There are undoubtedly major differences between the economies of the two countries. And... MORE

By Aleksandr Buzgalin In the final years of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, the so-called "antiglobalist" movement has begun to attract worldwide attention. Born in the mid-1990s after Seattle, Prague and Genoa, it became a powerful factor in the social and... MORE

By Elena Chinyaeva In late January the television channel TV-6 was taken off the airwaves after the Press Ministry implemented a court order that the channel's parent company be liquidated, which essentially robbed its owners of their assets. This took place almost two years after... MORE

By Nabi Abdullaev Over the past decade, contract killing and alcohol-fuelled slayings have become an everyday routine in Russia, leading many to look back nostalgically to the relatively crime-free days of the Soviet Union. Suicide rates and accidental deaths have also skyrocketed over the same... MORE

By Mikhail Zherebyatev Previous attempts to introduce the concept of community service as an alternative to military service were beset by failure, in both the Soviet Union and Russia. The first bill was drafted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR back in early 1990,... MORE

By Aleksandr Tsipko There's something odd about Russia's free press. On December 29, Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, appeared on Nikolai Svanidze's popular Zerkalo (Mirror) program, broadcast on the government TV channel RTR, giving a wide-ranging and highly significant interview. He looked, incidentally, in excellent... MORE

By A. V. Buzgalin Two years have passed since the presidential elections that brought Vladimir Putin to power. The public mood is predominantly one of expectation, coupled with a belief that Putin will meet it. He is popular, among both ordinary Russians and the economic... MORE

By A. I. Kolganov Ten years have elapsed since the Russian government headed by Boris Yeltsin (then combining the roles of president and prime minister) embarked on its policy of so-called radical market reforms. With it came a fundamental change in the country's economic order,... MORE