Russia's Governors Have More Influence in Elections Than Realized by Andrei Zhukov Little attention has been paid to the fact that the regional governors--i.e., the executive branch leaders of the Russian Federation'sregions -- could have a marked effect on the outcome of the parliamentaryelections scheduled... MORE

The Russian Armed Forces May Not Be So Poor After All by Stanislav Lunev The Russian press carries frequent reports of hunger and sometimesdeadly famine among soldiers, officers and their families, especiallyin military bases located far away from the ancient walls of theKremlin. What has... MORE

A Senior Russian Official Charges That the West is Exploiting Russia's Raw Materials Professor Vladimir Pitersky, a Russian Security Council officerand Vice President of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences,warns that in the next ten years, Russia might become an importerof raw materials. At his... MORE

Russia Balks on the CFE, Threatening Regional Security by Stanislav Lunev The announcement by Defense Minister Pavel Grachev that Russiacould not comply with the terms of the Conventional Armed Forcesin Europe (CFE) by the deadline came as no surprise. It has beenobvious for some months... MORE

No Narrowing of the Chasm Between Azerbaijan and Armenia by David Nissman There have been no serious battles between Azerbaijan and Armeniafor more than a year and a half, ever since a cease-fire wentinto effect. Now under the sole auspices of the OSCE in the... MORE

Ukraine Abandons Market Reform in Favor of Ethnic Economics

Ever-elusive Peace in Chechnya By Igor Rotar A "Disgraceful Provocation" Over the past month, the atmosphere in Chechnya has grown increasinglytense. The October 6 assassination attempt against General AnatolyRomanov, the Federal Army Group commander in Chechnya, and thesubsequent bombardment by Russian planes of a Chechen... MORE

Central Asian Big Business: The Mafia's Drug Trade by Kadir Alimov According to UN experts, the volume of financial turnover inthe world drug trade is second only to that of the arms trade.And it isn't surprising that powerful and well-organized mafiaclans are concentrating their attention... MORE

Pipelines and Geopolitics by Paul A. Goble Backed by the US government, American oil companies have changedtheir strategy for exporting oil from Central Asia and Azerbaijan. Until September, most had favored a single pipeline approach,one that would export oil through Russia or through Turkey. Now,the... MORE

Russia Casts a Long Shadow over Central Asia By Dr. Evgueni Novikov For the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, thereare no easy answers to national security concerns. They haveemerged from the international isolation of Soviet times to findthemselves in a very complex geopolitical situation.... MORE