By Elena Chinyaeva President Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov are engaged in an unexpectedly vocal dispute over the tempo of Russia's development. The shouting match enlivens Russia's internal politics but confirms as well the apprehension that the Russian elite has no clear vision of... MORE

By Harry Kopp Russians who sought and won U.S. recognition as a market-economy country are in for a shock. Acting on a request filed last year by two Russian steel companies, the U.S. Department of Commerce declared Russia a market economy on June 6. The... MORE

By Ilya Malyakin In 2000, on the strength of his first-round electoral victory and a political deal with the Communists in the Duma, Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed through a package of reforms intended to bring the regions more firmly back under federal control. A... MORE

By Vladimir Socor Russia has capped off its three recent summits--held in late May with the United States, NATO and the EU--with increased pressures on Georgia. So much for the hopes of any summiteers who expected a change in Moscow's behavior in "post-Soviet space." The... MORE

By Marshall I. Goldman What a difference a decade makes. In 1992, the Russian GDP fell by 14 percent. In 2002, it will probably rise by 3-4 percent. Because this turnaround seems to coincide with Vladimir Putin's appointment as prime minister on August 9, 1999,... MORE

By Peter Rutland President Bush came to Moscow, President Bush left. There were no surprises, no open conflicts, and thankfully no gaffes. The goal of the American visitors was to show the flag, to indicate by the president's physical presence that Russia still matters for... MORE

By Aleksandr Buzgalin At the time of writing, almost a month has passed since Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation [that is, both houses of parliament, the State Duma and the Federation Council] on April... MORE

By Arkady Cherepansky The funeral of the Cold War," said NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, echoing language many others have used to describe the Russia-NATO cooperation agreement. High-level politicians have been making such statements in both the East and the West for almost a decade.... MORE