The Fortnight in Review THE FORTNIGHT IN REVIEW As U.S. president Bill Clinton and Russian president Boris Yeltsin prepared to meet in Helsinki, Russia launched yet another barrage of criticism of NATO's enlargement plans. Ukraine, meanwhile, was strengthening its links with NATO. In Moscow, President... MORE

Russia is still unable to reach a consensus on military reform By Stanislav Lunev The dramatic state of affairs in the Russian armed forces is attracting more and more attention. Boris Yeltsin signed a new decree in February, cutting the Russian army to 200,000 men.... MORE

Ukraine adopts a wide-ranging military reform program By Serhii Markiv After five years of failed experiments and false starts, Ukraine has finalized a "State Program for the Building and Development of Ukraine's Armed Forces to the Year 2005." The plan was approved at the end... MORE

______________ NOTES: 1. "Minister, kotorogo ne rugaet oppozitsiia," (an interview with Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov) Obshchaya gazeta, September 19-25, 1996. p. 37 Translated by Mark Eckert

NATO Expansion: No Real Threat By Andrei Zagorsky The rhetorical side of the Russian discussion of NATO expansion is well-known; anger at the alliance's approach to Russia's borders has become an unchanging attribute of all of the speeches, both of government representatives, and of opposition... MORE

The Yeltsin Era: Successes and Paradoxes By Mikhail Gershaft Not just Boris Yeltsin's quintuple bypass surgery, but the "cold," the pneumonia, and the numerous disappearances of the Russian president in the last year give one reason to think that the Yeltsin period in Russian history... MORE

Despair in the Russian Provinces The "Forgotten People" "It seems that the world has forgotten all about our little forest village. The timber industry enterprise has been closed, and half of the people are out of work, since there's no other business here. The young... MORE

Elections and the Russian Secret Services By Vasily Andreev Practically nowhere else would it be possible for the security services to take as active, and most importantly, as independent, a role in preparing for and conducting the elections for their country's head of state, as... MORE

How the Shuttle Traders Save Russia By Lidia Lukyanova Economists say that "shuttle trading" is a unique Russian invention. In the course of their business, the shuttle traders criss-cross the country. Some import goods into Russia from abroad; others get their goods in Moscow and... MORE

Ukraine and NATO Expansion By Volodymyr Zviglyanich The proposed NATO enlargement westward has stimulated debate among politicians and analysts in Ukraine, particularly with regard to its impact on Ukraine's relations with the West and with Russia. In November-December 1996, the Kiev-based Ukrainian Center for Peace,... MORE