NEWS
By Georgie Anne Geyer | November 4, 1994
Washington -- TWO RUSSIAN leaders now engage our attention. One, because we think we know him well -- but don't. The other, because we do not know him at all -- but soon will.First, the well-known one, Boris Yeltsin. The predominant view of the Clinton administration is that Mr. Yeltsin is at least close to creating a real democrat, and that our interests are well served by his longevity. He will be in power a long time, they persist in saying.But behind what seems more and more to be a Potemkin facade, a new Boris Yeltsin is emerging in the eyes of the people who know him best.
NEWS
By Los Angeles Times | June 17, 1995
BUDYONNOVSK, Russia -- Russian troops today stormed a hospital where Chechen rebels had taken up to 2,000 people hostage, freeing at least 60, but the rebels put up a ferocious defense, officials and media reports said.Heavily armed commandos swarmed the building in this southern Russian town while firing automatic weapons, and Russian military helicopters and tanks joined the attack after heavy fighting erupted.News media reports said the rebels holed up in the hospital were firing back with automatic weapons and using their captives as human shields.
NEWS
By Will Englund and Will Englund,Moscow Bureau of The Sun | December 18, 1994
MOSCOW -- Chechen fighters contemptuously spurned an ultimatum by Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin to lay down their arms as of midnight last night, but the Russian government vowed again to crush resistance there.Shortly after the deadline passed, artillery shells were fired into an area north of Grozny, the Chechen capital. But it was impossible to know who had fired the salvos, or to identify the intended target, the Russian Itar-Tass news agency reported.Russian warplanes also buzzed Grozny after the deadline, and explosions were heard northwest of the city, the Associated Press reported from the capital.
NEWS
May 4, 2000
This article first appeared in the Economist: MOSCOW -- If this is victory, what would a stalemate look like? Even in winter, when the Chechen fighters were at their most vulnerable -- cold, hungry and visible through the bare trees -- the Russian forces, which outnumber them at least tenfold, failed to destroy them. Now spring is making conditions in the mountains friendlier for the Chechens. The war goes on. On April 27, Russia reported 10 dead from a Chechen ambush; another one the day before killed 15. The fighting is in areas which Russia claims to have controlled for weeks.
NEWS
By excerpted by Will Englund and excerpted by Will Englund,SUN FOREIGN STAFF | August 22, 2000
In the nine days between the sinking of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk -- on Aug. 12 -- and Norwegian divers yesterday opening the vessel and determining the crew could not have survived, the Russian press has become steadily more critical of the Ministry of Defense and President Vladimir V. Putin. What follows is a sampling of recent commentary in Russian newspapers and magazines, excerpted by Will Englund of The Sun's Moscow Bureau and by the bureau staff. It's no sin to be poor, but abject poverty means damnation It appears that the list of suggested causes of the Kursk nuclear submarine's sinking has by now been finally exhausted.
NEWS
July 13, 1994
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, author Alexander Solzhenitsyn has been preaching a "Russian Union" of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. That dream may come closer to realization now that Ukraine and Belarus have elected presidents who advocate closer ties with Moscow.This is a welcome development to those who favor Slavic cooperation under the Commonwealth of Independent States. But many Ukrainian and Belarusan nationalists see the outcome as a disaster. They fear an embrace by the Russian bear may suffocate their countries' fledgling freedom.