By Nabi Abdullaev Little has changed in Chechnya since the November 18 meeting between Akhmed Zakaev, the Chechen rebels' representative, and Viktor Kazantsev, President Vladimir Putin's envoy in the Southern federal district and the Kremlin's representative for the negotiations with the rebels, at least in... MORE

By Taras Kuzio Uzbekistan is competing with the more Russophile Kazakhstan for dominance of Central Asia and is one of the most important newly independent states of the former Soviet Union in terms of population, geographic location and mineral wealth. The September 11 terrorist attacks... MORE

By Elena Chinyaeva It looks as if the period of "wild capitalism" in Russia, with its redistribution of property through controversial privatization deals, has ended. The country has entered a stage in which respecting minor shareholders rights, introducing transparency standards and generally doing business "properly"... MORE

By Aleksandr Tsipko There is a great variety of opinion in the Russia media these days, much of it contradictory, about the reactions of the Russian people to Putin's unexpected decision to befriend America. Some magazines and television programs point to the reassuring fact that... MORE

By Nabi Abdullaev With his clean-shaven chin and classic blue jeans, 40-year-old Akhmed Magomedov hardly fits the stereotypical image of an Islamic radical--bearded, brandishing a machine gun and calling for the blood of infidels. But Magomedov, a Dagestan native who lives in Moscow and preaches... MORE

By Mikhail Kochkin In the Soviet era many of Russia's regions were bound to Chechnya by close economic, cultural and academic ties--thousands of people studied and worked in Djohar/Grozny, which at that time had one of the best oil institutes in the whole of Russia.... MORE

By Taras Kuzio Since the mid-1990s Belarus and Russia have declared a "union" as their strategic foreign policy goal. But, as a Russian newspaper recently put it: "The five years of the existence of the Russian-Belarusan union demonstrated that it is possible to declare (this... MORE

By Vladimir Zviglyanich You might be forgiven for assuming that this article is going to be about Ukraine's contribution to U.S.-led efforts to destroy the terrorist organization, al-Qaida, its fearless leaders and the Taliban regime. But there will be none of this, and not just... MORE

By Marina Konnova, Ilya Malyakin In early 2001, Saratov Oblast was rocked by political scandal. Representatives of the ruling elite and the public in one of its most industrially developed rayons, Balakovo, suddenly announced with unusual unanimity that their municipal body intended to resubordinate itself... MORE

By Taras Kuzio During the tenth anniversary celebrations of Ukrainian independence in Kyiv on August 24, one guest was conspicuous--Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski. This was the first occasion that such a high-level guest had attended these annual celebrations from a country with which Ukraine had,... MORE