Yeltsin's decision to back his office holders is likely to provoke a political crisis Larisa Piyasheva Moscow The Yeltsin reforms which took place under social democraticor at times liberal banners, have called forth a sharp reactiontoward national patriotism and are the foundation of the left-centristand... MORE

The Week Ahead: Chechnya, Chernomyrdin, and the CIS Summit in Minsk will dominate Chechnya, Chernomyrdin and the CIS summit in Minsk will dominatethe week ahead. CHECHNYA The fighting in Chechnya will intensify now that Yeltsin hasvetoed a plan for talks, and that the Russian army... MORE

The Week Just Past: Yeltsin vetoes peace talks in Chechnya; undermines his PM at the same time In addition to the reverberations from the Clinton-Yeltsin summit--which the Moscow media said the Russian side had won--threeevents dominated the past week: expanded fighting in Chechnya,the fitful start... MORE

Fact Page: A Directory of the Embassies A Directory of 15 Embassies Armenia 1660 L Street, NW Suite 210 Washington, DC 20036 (T) 202-628-5766 (F) 202-628-5769 e-mail: N/A Azerbaijan 927 15th Street, NW Washington, DC 20005 (T) 202-842-0001 (F) 202-842-0004 e-mail: azerbaijan@mcimail.com Belarus 1619 New... MORE

Interview: General Lebed on the Army & the Kremlin The following is an excerpt from an exclusive Prism interview with Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Lebed, commander of the 14th Russian Army, and possible candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation. Prism: General Lebed, more than... MORE

Baku Looks South by David Nissman The April 1995 merger of four Southern Azerbaijani political parties in Iran into the Front for the National Independence of South Azerbaijan (FNISA) further complicates relations between Baku and Tehran and between both and Moscow. In an appeal to... MORE

The Fate of the Russian Media by Victor Yasmann The Russian media played a key role in the demise of the Soviet Union, and in the process was itself profoundly changed. Ten years ago, all media outlets were socialist enterprises, all journalists were "fighters on... MORE

A New Russian de Gaulle By Aleksandr Zhilin The great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin said that "genius is the friend of paradoxes." His words spring to mind when one traces the political biography of General Aleksandr Lebed, the commander of Russia's 14th Army in the... MORE

The Week Ahead: Drawing Lines in Europe & in Russia Continued fighting in Chechnya, diplomatic explorations of the new environment after Moscow, and the delimitation of political factions in Russia for the upcoming elections are three of the most important developments to watch in the... MORE

The Week Just Past: Summits, Successful & Otherwise Three events dominated the week just ended: a contentious summit in Moscow, a supportive one in Kiev, and continued fighting in Chechnya. The Moscow summit said the U.S. side concede on virtually all points, Moscow commentators claimed,... MORE