Moscow attempts to play power broker in former Yugoslavia Moscow's reactive bid for greater influence in ex-Yugoslavia,the resilience of Chechen independence aspirations, and the searchfor new security arrangements in the post-Soviet space commandedparticular attention during the past week. RUSSIA AND THE YUGOSLAV SUCCESSION In a... MORE

Proposed Kazakh constitution will solve some problems but exacerbate others by David Nissman On August 30, Kazakhstan will hold a referendum on a new draftconstitution, although the present one is only two and a halfyears old. While the draft constitution was published in earlyJuly, a... MORE

Ukrainian and Russian negotiations on the Black Sea fleet fail to make progress by Vladimir Socor On July 25 and 26, Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers ViktorChernomyrdin and Evhen Marchuk held talks in Moscow on securityand economic issues. The talks and their immediate context highlightedcontinuing... MORE

Turkey expands its influence in Central Asia and the Caucasus by Vladimir Socor Recent and planned visits by high-level Turkish officials to Azerbaijan,Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan received only minimal attention inthe Western media, but these contacts may ultimately representa more important trend than more widely noted... MORE

Yeltsin's health problems may be rooted in depression by Martin Ebon Boris Yeltsin's recent heart attack, his heavy drinking on occasionand his periodic disappearances from public view may all havetheir roots in a common and potentially more serious illness. As Yeltsin acknowledges in both volumes... MORE

Fighting in Tajikistan is set to explode August has not always been a quiet month in Moscow, but thisnext week may be quieter than many others. Nonetheless, the startof the parliamentary election campaign, continuing problems inChechnya, and a likely upsurge in the fighting in Tajikistan... MORE

Chechen accords are far from a general peace Three events dominated the past week: a partial resolution ofthe Chechen war, new difficulties in Russian-Ukrainian talks onthe fate of the Black Sea Fleet, and intense Russian diplomaticactivity on Bosnia. CHECHNYA On July 30, Russian and Chechen... MORE

Fact Page LANGUAGE COMPETENCE OF RUSSIANS AND NON-RUSSIANS (Numbers Taken from 1989 Census)Country Titular Nationality Russian Minority (with % knowing Russian) (% knowing local language)Russia 119,807,165 NAUkraine 37,340,368(59.4%) 11,340,250(32.7%)Belarus 7,897,781(60.4%) 1,341,055(24.5%)Moldova 2,790,769(53.4%) 560,423(11.2%)Armenia 3,081,920(44.3%) 51,553(32.2%)Georgia 3,789,385(31.8%) 338,645(22.7%)Azerbaijan 5,800,994(31.7%) 392,303(14.3%)Kazakhstan 6,531,921(62.8%) 6,226,400( 0.9%)Kyrgyzstan 2,228,482(36.9%) 916,543( 1.2%)Uzbekistan... MORE

Russia's relations with Belgrade are far from problem-free by Slobodan Pavlovic This week Russia used another opportunity to demonstrate publiclyits policy differences with the major Western powers over the39 months old war in Bosnia. Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev(before leaving Belgrade on July 25 after talks... MORE

Yeltsin's new man at the FSB is a pawn in a larger political struggle by Victor Yasmann On July 22, Boris Yeltsin summoned the leading generals of theFederal Security Service (FSB) to Barvikha where he is recoveringfrom a heart attack. The Russian president then introduced... MORE