Strobe Talbott, acting temporarily as U.S. secretary of state while the Clinton Administration awaits approval of Madeleine Albright for that post, arrived yesterday in Moscow on a previously unannounced official visit. He is reportedly working out the details of a summit meeting between the presidents... MORE

Russian customs officials in St. Petersburg let Tatyana Chernova off a flight from Oslo on January 20. The officials claimed that her passport had earlier been stamped "exit for permanent residence abroad" due to a "clerical error." Chernova is the wife of Alexander Nikitin, the... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry has complained to Beijing over the economic activities of Chinese citizens illegally operating Russia. The complaint, which comes amid warming relations between the two countries, was voiced on January 20 during an official visit to Beijing by a Russian deputy foreign minister.... MORE

Communists in Buryatia marked the 73rd anniversary of Lenin's death yesterday by reviving the Pioneer organization, which caters to children aged 7 and above. In a solemn ceremony, members of the Young Communist League, or Komsomol, tied red scarves round the necks of four children... MORE

Small businesses are providing employment for a growing number of Russian workers, a government official announced Monday. One million new jobs were created last year by small businesses, which remain concentrated in the big cities. Despite the government's adoption of a federal program to support... MORE

With less than a week to go before parliamentary and presidential elections in Chechnya, Alla Dudaeva, widow of Djohar Dudaev, has appeared on Grozny television to endorse Zelimkhan Yandarbiev's candidacy. Dudaeva said that Yandarbiev, who served as vice president under her husband, was the natural... MORE

The sixth round of inter-Tajik peace talks, held in Tehran, ended on January 19. Maksim Peshkov, the head of the Russian commission on settling the Tajik crisis, has told the Monitor that the two sides were able to reach agreement on several political issues, including... MORE

Azerbaijan observed a day of national mourning yesterday in memory of the 1990 Soviet military crackdown, which killed at least 132 peaceful demonstrators in Baku and wounded more than 700 others. Attending memorial ceremonies, President Haidar Aliev stated that the nation proved to the world... MORE

An armor-reinforced Presidential Guard unit under the Guard's commander, Maj. Gen. Gafar Mirzoev, withdrew on January 18 from the environs of Tursunzade following a clash the preceding day with local "self-defense forces." Residents of that western town continue to man pickets intended to block the... MORE

State Minister (equivalent of prime minister) Niko Lekishvili, who led Georgia's delegation to the January 17 meeting in Moscow of prime ministers from the CIS countries, said yesterday that Tbilisi declined to sign various documents on "deepening economic integration" because they evidenced a "tendency to... MORE