Vitaly Portnykov

Reports of the latest negotiations between a Russian government delegation and IMF representatives sometimes resembled a theater of military operations and sometimes the chronicle of a harvest campaign – brief, convincing, and all important. Now a few words from the gifted general or combine shock...

By Vitaly Portnykov, The Day If Russian newspapers were published on holidays their main subject would be measuring the balance in Moscow’s current political and business elite. President Yeltsin, known for his undeniable talent for establishing weight categories best known to himself, is...

Vitaly Portnykov, The Day The April 24 CIS summit in Moscow climaxed in the appointment of a new CIS Executive Secretary to replace Belarus bureaucrat Ivan Korotchenia who embodied the structure’s anachronism. The CIS Presidents agreed to replace him by Boris Berezovsky, former Deputy...

I remember well how the Crimean Tatars rallied in what was then the capital of the Union at the start of Gorbachev’s perestroika. There were not as many politically courageous then as now, perhaps because the risks were higher. Using a popular Central Television clichО, “Moscow residents and...

Mr. Gryzlov, you have been Chairman of the Russian Duma for only several weeks, yet your [first] visit abroad is to Ukraine. Why Kyiv? Gryzlov: Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kyiv recently to attend the ceremony of closing the Year of Russia in Ukraine. His trip showed that, after the...

The recent visit by Russia’s Foreign Minister Ihor Ivanov to Bucharest resulted in an arrangement for the future visit by Romania’s President Ion Iliescu to Moscow. However, it will not be a pleasure junket for Iliescu. He intends to sign an agreement on friendship and cooperation between Russia...

Frankly, I was quite amazed to read reviews in the Ukrainian press whose bottom line is that President Kuchma’s visit to Beijing served no purpose, as China is in the process of transition to a new government and there is no one to talk to. The regime in China is not outgoing but transitional and...

At his Kremlin meeting with representatives of the Chechen community, Pres. Volodymyr Putin made it clear that negotiations with Aslan Maskhadov are out of the question. The formula of “who supports Maskhadov supports war” will long dampen the spirits of those Russian politicians who will keep...

A hero of a famous book by Benedict Yerofeyev, Moscow — Pietushki, being in a state of agitation, suggested a war be declared on the Danes, who had slain their prince, Hamlet. This incident, seemingly humorous, was brought back to mind when the political council of the United Russia Party suggested...

It is hard to describe the emotions each of us living in Moscow experienced as the Chechen kamikazes held the hostages at the theater in Dubrovka. Days after the tragedy — have those days really passed? We still don’t know about all of the hostages — rereading commentaries carried by Western...