Hugo Chavez, the flamboyant leftist president of Venezuela, visited Russia last week as part of a tour of European and Asian countries that included Belarus and Iran. In Minsk and Tehran Chavez joined his hosts in issuing anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric. In Russia, Chavez's rhetoric... MORE

As Russian and Chinese officials indicated plans to launch a major forestry joint venture in Siberia, environmentalists decried the idea as an ominous sign for Russia’s taiga forests. Russia and China discussed a long-term lease of one million hectares of Siberian forests as "a pilot... MORE

The latest moves by Russia’s major state-controlled energy companies have clearly demonstrated that “expansion” and “control” are still the words that best describe the Kremlin’s preferred “mode of operation.” On the Western front Gazprom, Russia’s natural energy behemoth, appears ready to strike a deal with... MORE

Russian authorities are continuing their attempts to get maximum benefit from the July 10 death of Shamil Basaev, military commander of North Caucasian rebels. On July 15 Federal Security Service Director Nikolai Patrushev put forward an offer of amnesty to Chechnya’s separatist rebels (see Chechnya... MORE

Russian boosted its oil exports to China by rail this year, but crude shipments are yet to match earlier expectations. In the first six months of 2006, Russian crude shipments to China by rail reached some 100,000 barrels per day (nearly 5 million tons) or... MORE

There were plenty of good reasons to organize an informal top-level meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Moscow last weekend. Old conflicts and new tensions dividing its 12 member-states, from the deadlocked antagonism between Armenia and Azerbaijan to the ongoing spy scandal... MORE

Devalued by an unusually low attendance -- only eight out of twelve presidents -- the CIS informal summit in Moscow on July 21-22 marks the official transition of this organization to a “lite” version of its former self. With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s acquiescence, Kazakh... MORE

On Monday, July 17, Imam Yaraliev, prosecutor-general for Dagestan, announced his resignation. His deputy, Murad Kekhlerov, will take the post until the Russian prosecutor-general appoints a replacement. Yaraliev had been regarded as a highly corrupt official. According to information from the Dagestani prosecutor’s office, Yaraliev... MORE