Profiles of Political Parties: The Congress of Russian Communities by Andrei Zhukov This is the first in a series of Prism articles profiling Russianpolitical parties. The Congress of Russian Communities (KRO) is the "dark horse"of this year's parliamentary election campaign. In spite of theorganization's youth... MORE

NATO's Future: The Risks of Not Expanding by Paul A. Goble On September 28, NATO Secretary General Willy Claes is scheduledto release a 30-page report on the Western alliance's principlesfor enlargement. Advance press coverage in Europe suggests thatthe document says that the new members will... MORE

Yeltsin's CIS Decree: An Instrument for Regaining Russia's Superpower Status by Kathleen Mihalisko On September 14, President Boris Yeltsin issued an importantand wide-ranging decree on "The Establishment of the StrategicCourse of the Russian Federation with Member States of the CIS."Although its significance has been largely... MORE

Interethnic Tension Could Affect Pipeline Security by David Nissman October 1 marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment ofthe Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region. This territory is inhabitedat present by some nine million Uighurs--a Turkic sedentary peoplewith more than a millennium of continuous cultural history-- overone million... MORE

Boris Fedorov promotes free markets and Russian nationalism (On August 15, 1995, Boris Fedorov, a leading Russian reformerand ex-minister of finance, gave a press conference followinga convention of his political party, "Forward, Russia!" The following excerpts of that press briefing were recorded for"Prism" by Yevgeny... MORE

Central Asia's political leaders struggle to control Islamic influence by David Nissman In early July the Kyrgyz National Security Council met to discusswhat they called the "Muslim offensive" in the southof the republic, near Osh. Members of the Council claimed to be"alarmed" by the alleged... MORE

How corrupt is Russia's military leadership? by Aleksandr Zhilin Stories about corruption in the army regularly appear in the Russianmass media. But these stories, to this point, have given onlya fragmentary conception of the extent of the corruption amongthe Defense Ministry's highest officials. A document... MORE

Russia's counterintelligence service takes aim at Turkey by Ernest Andrews Since early June of this year the Russian media has carried aspate of reports which allege strong ivolvement by Turkey, morespecifically, by Turkey's intelligence services in the Chechnyacrisis. The source of these allegations, according to... MORE

The myth of economic stabilization in Russia by Victor J. Yasmann Official figures in Russia show the ruble rising, inflation falling,government revenues up and budget deficits down. The politicianswasted no time: "Russia has entered a period of economicstabilization," declared First Deputy Prime Minister AnatolyChubais. Some... MORE

Moscow's foreign policy grows increasingly hardlineCIS Countries seek to loosen the Russian yoke by Vladimir Socor THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION Despite the accelerating pace of the campaign for legislativeelections, it was foreign policy that laid first claim to theattention and emotional energies of Russia's political class... MORE