By Volodymyr Zviglyanich EASTERN AND WESTERN UKRAINIANS

By Oksana Antonenko After a decade of geopolitical maneuvering among the key international players, the fate of Caspian oil and the Caspian Sea region as whole may be decided within a few weeks: The Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) is expected to announce its choice... MORE

By Elena Dikun The visit of the Russian president to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in mid-October plainly demonstrated that Boris Yeltsin is no longer able to function normally. He found it difficult to stand up without help. On the rare occasions that he appeared in public,... MORE

By Valery Virkunen Experts see the collapse of the system of state short-term bonds (GKOs) as the main reason for the escalation of the Russian crisis. After former Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko announced that the government was unable to meet its debts, thousands of participants... MORE

As October reached its end, Russian political life seemed much closer to a post-Yeltsin era than it had just two weeks earlier. The Russian president was back in the government sanitarium at Barvikha, just outside Moscow, where he had spent the last part of 1996... MORE

(Aleksandr Pushkin's famous tragedy Boris Godunov ends with these few words [but without the question mark])

By Vladimir Alekseevich Mironov August and September saw a sharp political and financial-banking crisis in Russia. It manifested itself three ways. First was in the political sphere in the hasty dismissal of Sergei Kirienko's government, which elicited a perplexed reaction from many politicians and businessmen.... MORE

The Most Influential Field Commanders Demand the Resignation of the President of the Republic

By Elena Dikun Boris Nemtsov moved in the highest circles of the government and political elite, and was always thought of as Yeltsin's favorite. He was known as "a bright young man with a bright future", and was tipped as a future president of Russia.... MORE

If that were not enough, Boris Yeltsin's health problems flared up again, with the Russian head of state truncating a swing through Central Asia after coming down with bronchitis. Several near-falls while in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as well as clear signs of disorientation, led to a... MORE