For an End to War and the Establishment of Peace in the Chechen Republic," a committee composed of leading Russian human rights activists and set up in March, has written an open letter to the leaders of the G-7 group of industrialized countries asking them... MORE

The CIS Summit closed in Minsk on June 1 without the announcement of any concrete actions that might help buoy the sagging Belarusian economy or, coincidentally, the campaign of Belarusan President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who faces an election in September. The summit did announce the putative... MORE

In a sign of confidence in the Armenian economy, both the IMF and World Bank have recently granted loans to Armenia. The IMF transferred the first US$12 million tranche of its US$87 million Poverty Reduction Gross Facility (PRGF) in early June, while the World Bank... MORE

Officials of international oil companies and of the U.S. government have announced a significant acceleration in the development of Azerbaijani oil projects. According to the U.S. ambassador in Baku, Ross Wilson, Azerbaijan stands "on the threshold of a new oil boom" in terms of capital... MORE

A meeting last week in Brussels between U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, at which the contentious issue of U.S. missile defense planning dominated the agenda, proved nevertheless to be something of an anticlimax. In the public statements they issued... MORE

On June 12, 1990, the first Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic passed a declaration of state sovereignty. June 12 has since been made an official holiday that is formally designated "the Day of the Passage of the Declaration of... MORE

The Russian authorities in Chechnya yesterday (June 12) marked Russian "Independence Day" against the backdrop of ongoing guerrilla warfare. Federal troops in the republic were on heightened alert out of fear that the rebels would step up attacks to coincide with the holiday. Despite the... MORE

Uzbekistan's armed forces are intensively preparing for another summer campaign against Islamist insurgents. Since early June, Uzbek army, interior and border troops are conducting combined tactical exercises in the same mountainous area in which they fought the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) guerrillas last year.... MORE

At the recent CIS Collective Security Treaty summit, Tajik President Imomali Rahmonov declared that his country "has become a buffer zone in the struggle against the narcotics traffic" originating in Afghanistan. This assertion is also an official rationale for the stationing of Russian troops in... MORE

According to official statistics, Kazakhstan's GDP continued to grow at a rapid pace during the first quarter of 2001, rising 11 percent above the level reached in the first quarter of 2000. While output growth was reported in almost all sectors, the key drivers of... MORE