Renfrey Clarke

  • Russian elections: Yeltsin running scared

    Russian elections: Yeltsin running scaredMOSCOW — Is President Boris Yeltsin about to romp home an easy winner in the Russian presidential elections, pulling in the support of previously uncommitted voters and overwhelming

  • Mayak: the other Chernobyl

    MOSCOW — The 1986 accident at Chernobyl was not the first case in which the Soviet nuclear industry contrived to pour huge quantities of deadly radionuclides into the environment. In terms of total radioactivity released, the

  • Yeltsin abolishes military call-up — or does he?

    MOSCOW — There is nothing so capable of persuading "reformist" Russian President Boris Yeltsin to announce reforms as the prospect of being thrown out of his job. Since campaigning began in earnest for the June 16 election,

  • Russia faces financial meltdown

    MOSCOW — Partly as a result of President Boris Yeltsin's efforts to buy himself victory in the June 16 elections, Russia in coming months is due to experience its most severe financial shocks since the policies of "reform" began

  • Ukrainian authorities jail anti-nuclear protesters

    MOSCOW — With close to 1000 square kilometres of Ukraine made uninhabitable by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, you might expect the authorities in the capital, Kiev, to take a tolerant attitude to protests against nuclear

  • Learning nothing from Chernobyl

    Learning nothing from ChernobylMOSCOW — Ten years after the disaster at Chernobyl, the governments in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have clearly learned little about the dangers of nuclear power. In Russia and Ukraine, plans

  • Bankers push nuclear power in eastern Europe

    MOSCOW — To believe its founding charter, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is committed to pursuing "environmentally sound and sustainable development" as it helps fund the transition to market economies in

  • Ten years later: the true price of nuclear power

    MOSCOW — On April 19, a week before the 10th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, leaders of the G7 group of industrialised nations met in Moscow with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine for a two-day summit on nuclear

  • Russian political hacks turn 'left'

    MOSCOW — Back in 1990 and 1991, the suggestion would have seemed absurd. Five years into the future, politicians wanting to rise to high office would no longer be proclaiming themselves "democrats" and pronouncing anathemas on

  • Chechen leader calls Yeltsin's bluff

    MOSCOW — In a surprise development on April 8, Dzhokhar Dudayev, the central leader of the Chechen resistance forces, broke with the rebels' past position and called for direct negotiations with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

  • * Yeltsin frees land sales as rural collapse continues

    MOSCOW — As Russian agriculture continues to collapse, President Boris Yeltsin has tried to salvage rural support by ordering drastic changes in the country's land tenure system. A decree of March 7 sets in place a new Land

  • Can Russian Communists topple Yeltsin?

    Since supporters of President Boris Yeltsin were routed in parliamentary elections in December, Russians have been faced with the prospect that their next president may be Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF).