The Crimean parliament, the Supreme Soviet, has refused to make many of the changes to Crimea's draft constitution that the Ukrainian parliament had demanded. Kiev had objected to 20 of the draft's 136 articles. Amendments drafted by a working group of Crimean and Ukrainian parliamentarians... MORE

"Certain forces are trying to play the Cossack card to disrupt the elections in Chechnya-Ichkeria," warns Aslan Maskhadov, one of the leading candidates for Chechnya's presidency. Maskhadov offered to cooperate with the leaders of the North Caucasus republics to avert clashes between Chechens and Cossacks.... MORE

Russian prosecutor general Yuri Skuratov has opened a criminal case on the disappearance in Chechnya of ORT reporters Roman Perevezentsev and Vyacheslav Tibelius. (NTV, January 21) The journalists disappeared on January 19 while on their way to Nazran, capital of Ingushetia, after a meeting with... MORE

One day after talks outside the Russian capital on relations with NATO, Russia's Foreign Ministry made clear yesterday that Moscow would continue its public criticism of the Western alliance's enlargement plans. "Whatever the situation, Russia will continue to oppose NATO's enlargement plans," Foreign Ministry spokesman... MORE

The first session of the 30-nation negotiations on revising the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty was held yesterday in Vienna. This first meeting was strictly a procedural one, and the talks could last for 18 months or more. It is largely due to... MORE

Arif Mansurov, head of Azerbaijan's State Committee for Ecology and Control of Natural Resources, has been dismissed and arrested. He is accused of having aided the escape from pre-trial detention of three Popular Front-era military commanders and the leader of the abortive Talysh-Mugan republic, all... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin returned to the Kremlin this morning, days earlier than expected after a bout of pneumonia. (AP, BBC, Itar-Tass, January 22) Russian news agencies said he was meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Yeltsin is clearly determined to head off charges that ill... MORE

Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto admitted yesterday that his government had misjudged the severity of an oil spill from a wrecked Russian tanker. The government had erred, he said, in wrongly believing both that the bow of the ship was easily salvageable and that the... MORE

Georgian air traffic controllers yesterday turned back Russian military cargo planes carrying supplies to Russian troops in Abkhazia. Georgian officials claim that Moscow owes $250,000 for previous air traffic services to military aircraft. The Russians normally fly in some 40 metric tons of supplies each... MORE

The Russian air force is unable to fulfill its assigned tasks, according to its commander-in-chief, Army Gen. Petr Deinekin. He said that more than one-half of the force's aircraft were obsolete and that pilots could not fly training missions because there was no fuel. Deinekin... MORE