Renfrey Clarke

  • Democrats call for opposition bloc

    MOSCOW — A group of Russian academics and political activists has called for the formation of a new bloc of democratic opposition to the regime of President Boris Yeltsin. A statement released by the group begins by

  • Unions plan struggle to defend wages

    Unions plan struggle to defend wagesMOSCOW — Defying heavy government pressure, Russia's main union body went ahead on September 28 with a conference that had been intended to map out a campaign of

  • Broad opposition to coup

    MOSCOW — "The Executive Committee of the Council of the FNPR calls on affiliated organisations, labour collectives, and blue and white collar workers to use all available means, including strikes, to make a decisive protest

  • To build capitalism, Yeltsin dumps democracy

    MOSCOW — "The Russian government's economic program cannot be implemented by democratic means", a speaker argued bluntly at an international conference held by the Russian trade unions on September 16. The same day,

  • Yeltsin spurns dialogue, prepares fresh attacks

    MOSCOW, the "White House", September 24 — As the rouble crashed and opposition newspapers were shut down, Russians on the fourth day after President Boris Yeltsin's coup d'etat were pondering a future of shattered links

  • Strike closes half of Russian coal mines

    MOSCOW — More than half a million employees of the Russian coal industry stopped work for 24 hours on September 6, halting production in 133 of the country's 259 underground mines. The national stoppage was the latest in a

  • The mafia and Yeltsin's conflict with parliament

    MOSCOW — On the night of August 25, unknown assailants fired more than 100 bullets into the country house of Yuri Gekht, a business leader and head of the Industrial Union faction of the Russian parliament. Gekht, who has

  • Liberal reforms and Russian godfathers

    MOSCOW — Russia's capital, it was reported recently, has now entered a select group of world centres. For anyone not content with a bread-and-potatoes standard of living, Moscow has become one of the

  • Strike wave sweeps Russia

    MOSCOW — Since the end of July, the Russian government has been challenged by the largest wave of strikes since the coal industry struggles of 19891991. Even more impressive than the size of the actions has been the range

  • Rouble fiasco to rebound on Yeltsin?

    MOSCOW — The remaining confidence of many Russians in the economic strategies of their government perished over the weekend of July 24- 25, as a shock monetary reform threw retail trade into chaos and threatened to

  • Explosion in Russian plutonium plant

    MOSCOW — If a nuclear accident on the scale of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster were to occur in Russia, would the population be told immediately of the catastrophe and acquainted with the dangers? If the accident occurred