Sixty of the approximately 600 soldiers who deserted the Soviet army in former East Germany have sent an appeal to U.S. president Bill Clinton for help in avoiding deportation back to Russia or one of the other newly independent states. The 60 say that they... MORE

Addressing a meeting of Uzbekistan's Interdepartmental Council for Economic Reforms in the presence of international investors and bankers, President Islam Karimov called for greater efforts to reverse Soviet-era popular attitudes of suspicion toward private wealth and to awaken a sense of property ownership among the... MORE

The stalemate continues today around the Sodirov brothers' camp at Kalainav, 85 kilometers east of Dushanbe. There are unconfirmed allegations that the Sodirovs have killed one UN observer hostage and that five pro-Sodirov fighters were killed before the remaining 35 were airlifted by Russian helicopters... MORE

In talks with President Petru Lucinschi and other Moldovan leaders in Chisinau, Russian Defense Council secretary Yuri Baturin held out the prospect of a numerical reduction of the Russian troops in Moldova by next autumn, subject to Moldovan contributions to housing construction in Russia for... MORE

The president of the Republic of Sakha, a vast, mineral-rich Siberian territory almost as big as India, was in Geneva on February 11 to sign an agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature. A grant of $360,000 from the Swiss-based organization will help Sakha... MORE

Russian finance minister Aleksandr Livshits says that the Russian government and the South African diamond corporation De Beers have worked out a mutually acceptable compromise and will soon sign a new contract covering the marketing of Russia's raw diamonds. (Itar-Tass, February 12) De Beers has... MORE

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin told Russian legislators yesterday that the country's Defense Council would make some "fundamental decisions" on the future of the armed forces at its next meeting. "It is high time we stopped talking about military reform and started implementing it," Chernomyrdin was... MORE

The enthusiasm with which top Kremlin officials have leapt onto the anti-NATO bandwagon in recent weeks can be attributed to their desire to keep retired gen. Aleksandr Lebed from winning the presidency, a leading Russian pollster claims. According to Aleksandr Oslon, general director of the... MORE

A spokesman for the Russian state-owned arms export company Rosvooruzhenie said yesterday that the company had no information about the transfer of SS-4 ballistic missile technology to Iran as recently charged by the U.S. and Israel. But other Russian sources suggested that it still might... MORE

A poll by Moscow's respected VTsIOM polling organization has revealed that the more a Russian drinks, the more likely he or she is to support Boris Yeltsin and his market reforms. A poll of 2,404 people showed that those who drink alcohol every day are... MORE