SUMMIT STILL IN QUESTION.

The regular autumn meeting of CIS heads of state has been rescheduled for the third time. The new tentative date is December 8. But Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma promptly announced that he would be unable to attend due to scheduled official visits to China and Britain December 4-14. Meanwhile Moscow has proposed a CIS mini-summit sometime between October 22 and 24 in New York on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly. (19)

A symbolic New York mini-summit would enable Russia to project itself as the leader of a "regional organization," hoping to buttress its claim to recognition of special prerogatives there. Moscow sets the basic agenda for CIS meetings, informing member states through the CIS Executive Secretariat, which it dominates. Member countries sometimes have an opportunity to add items of interest to them after the basic agenda is in place.

1. Reuter and Interfax, October 22

2. Interfax, October 20

3. Interfax, October 20

4. Interfax, October 17

5. FIA-Interfax, Oct. 20

6. Interfax and Reuter, October 22

7. Interfax, October 20

8. Interfax, October 20

9. Kommersant, October 20; Interfax-Ukraine, October 17

10. Interfax Ukraine, October 20

11. Itar-TASS, October 20

12. ITAR-TASS, October 20

13. ITAR-TASS, Reuter, October 20

14. ITAR-TASS, October 20

15. ITAR-TASS, October 20

16. BNS, October 19

17. Interfax, October 21

18. Interfax, October 20 and 21; Russian TV, October 21

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