The former prime minister in the Azerbaijani Popular Front's government, Panah Husseinov, reappeared in public at a news conference in Baku to describe president Haidar Aliev as "one of the few politicians capable of tackling Azerbaijan's problems," particularly economic development and the Karabakh conflict. Husseinov... MORE

On the second leg of his tour of four newly independent countries, NATO secretary general Javier Solana conferred on February 11-12 in Tbilisi with Georgian leaders. President Eduard Shevardnadze stated that although Georgia does not envisage joining NATO, it regards itself and the South Caucasus... MORE

Some 3,000 Minsk residents attended on February 10 a rally and demonstration called by retail tradesmen protesting President Aleksandr Lukashenko's order to return the central Minsk food marked to state ownership and to ban private retailers from the market. The Popular Front, the United Civic... MORE

The parliament of the Republic of Tatarstan is mulling the possibility of introducing its own citizenship, Monitor's correspondent in the Volga region reports. A terse note to this effect appeared in the local newspaper, Vechernyaya Kazan, on February 8. Ever since Tatarstan adopted a declaration... MORE

Protests by a few Russian reformers notwithstanding, the Kremlin's public opposition to NATO enlargement has not only continued in recent days, but the intensity of its invective may have increased. That seemed to be the case on February 11, when Boris Yeltsin's foreign policy advisor... MORE

Moscow's public debate on NATO enlargement has taken an unexpected turn in recent days, as sharpened criticism aimed at the alliance by Kremlin spokesmen has been met with counter charges that the anti-NATO "hysteria" currently engulfing Russia is motivated more by political than by national... MORE

Heart surgeon Rinat Akchurin, who performed Boris Yeltsin's bypass operation last November, says the Russian president needs at least another two weeks to recover from pneumonia. This is "the minimum time we can talk about now," Professor Akchurin said yesterday. There have been allegations that... MORE

The U.S. government has sent a diplomatic warning to Moscow regarding the alleged transfer of missile technology to Iran. (See Monitor, February 12) American officials claim that Russia has recently given Iran information and components for the Russian SS-4 missile. (Los Angeles Times, February 12)... MORE

U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright warned in Washington on February 11 that any long delay in expanding NATO would create "a permanent source of tension and insecurity in the heart of Europe." Albright also cautioned that the U.S. can do little to overcome Russia's... MORE

Russian military helicopters arrived in the Afghan town of Tolukan to airlift 40 waiting pro-Sodirov fighters to the Sodirov brothers' camp in Tajikistan in exchange for the 14 hostages held there. However, the transfer failed to take place yesterday as scheduled. Dushanbe claimed that the... MORE