Yeltsin's Stunning Victory by Gleb Cherkassov For most observers, the results of the presidential electionswere no surprise: Boris Yeltsin won, defeating decisively, theopposition leader, Gennady Zyuganov. But if a detached observerhad fallen into a deep sleep sometime in January and had awakenedon July 4th, his... MORE

Regional Polls Point to a Tight Presidential Race By Andrei Zhukov The chances of the candidates in the Russian presidential electionsnow depend on the preferences of the voters in the provinces.According to a number of pollsters, these preferences have remainedvirtually unchanged since last December (i.e.,... MORE

The Media: Can it Sway the Elections? by Gleb Cherkassov It is hard to overestimate the role of the mass media in the electioncampaigns which are taking place in Russia. Inability to workwith the media leads to complete disaster in the elections, whileclever use of... MORE

Will the Soviet Union Revive by 2005? by Volodymyr Zviglyanich The Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy has recentlyreleased a draft document entitled "Will the [Soviet] UnionRevive by 2005?" This Council works under the direct supervisionof the President Yeltsin. It is headed by Sergei... MORE

Zyuganov: The Reluctant Communist by Nikolai Troitsky Gennady Zyuganov, Chairman of the Central Committee of the CommunistParty of the Russian Federation (KPRF), has little use for Communistideas. In this, lies both his strength and his weakness. On the one hand, his dissociation from the ideas... MORE

The Fortnight in Review RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TURNS MURDEROUS The finaltwo weeks of the Russian election campaign brought terror to thestreets of Moscow, with an assassination attempt against the leadingcandidate for deputy mayor of the city and a bomb explosion inthe Moscow metro on July... MORE

The Lawlessness of Russian Reform By David Satter The popularity of Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist candidate forpresident of Russia, poses a painful question: how was it possiblein five years for the democratic process in Russia to discredititself so thoroughly that millions of people are now... MORE

The Emperor of Russia's Warehouses by Alla Davidova Pavel Borodin, head of Russia's Presidential Management Office,for the second straight year, has held a solid place on the listof Russia's 100 most influential politicians. He is one of BorisNikolayevich [Yeltsin's] closest associates and is regarded asone... MORE

Fast and Loose with Other People's Money? By Lidia Lukyanova There are more than 2,500 commercial banks operating in Russia,more than 1,400 of them in Moscow. According to the Central Bank'sfigures, 300 of these banks are close to bankruptcy. And morethan 120 commercial banks in... MORE

Russia and Iran: The Eastern Temptation By Aleksei Malashenko The ties between Russia and Iran, contrary to the expectationsof certain experts both in the West and the East, continue tostrengthen, and are becoming one of the main factors determiningthe political situation in the Middle East... MORE