A New Identity: Islam in the North Caucasus

Russia's Regions Strike Out on Their Own By Mikhail Gershaft At the end of March, elections were held for the presidency ofthe republic of Tatarstan, which is part of the Russian Federationand a place which was once a trouble spot. The only candidate,Mintimer Shaimiev, was... MORE

Lebed: What Lies Ahead By Gleb Cherkassov Russian Security Council secretary Aleksandr Lebed managed tohang on in his post a little less than four months. The man whotook third place in the presidential elections, and, by joiningBoris Yeltsin's team, helped him to win a decisive... MORE

Lebed: Why He was Fired By Nikolai Troitsky Aleksandr Lebed's banishment from the Kremlin could be fatal,either for the general himself, or for those who were behind theorder removing him. The general, of course, had no intention ofbeing a bureaucrat for the rest of his... MORE

The Test of Wills over NATO By Rossen Vassilev The loss of an empire has forced a radical redefinition of Russianinterests in world politics, but Moscow is still resisting effortsto bring NATO, its Cold War enemy, right to its front door. Norare the Russians ready... MORE

Twilight of the Transdniester Republic By Igor Rotar The People I bought a glass of fruit juice in a cafe in the city of Tiraspol,capital of the self-styled Transdniester Moldavian Republic (TMR).The waitress brought me my change -- several imposing-lookingpiles of Transdniester currency: "That's only... MORE

The Signs of a Chechen Victory By Maria Eismont The war in Chechnya, which began rather unexpectedly, ended evenmore suddenly. Even as late as early August, nobody could havepredicted that the Russian army could be defeated militarily. From the very beginning of the war, the... MORE

High Stakes in the Regional Elections By Andrei Zhukov One of Boris Yeltsin's campaign chairmen said something instructivein the middle of July: "If we lose the regional elections,we will be throwing away everything we worked so hard to win inthe presidential race." And that's close... MORE

Is it too Early to Bury the Communists? By Andrei Fedorov Four years ago, speaking before American congressmen, Russianpresident Boris Yeltsin announced that "Communism is finishedin Russia. It is finished once and for all." But in the 1995parliamentary elections, the Communist Party of the Russian... MORE

How the Media were Used By Gleb Cherkassov One of the clearest achievements of Boris Yeltsin's campaign teamin the recent presidential elections was to establish completecontrol over the mass media. The significance of this achievement was all the greater sinceYeltsin's situation at the beginning of... MORE