In a move reported belatedly outside of Ukraine, President Leonid Kuchma has released Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Skipalsky from the position of chief of the Defense Ministry's Main Directorate for Intelligence. Skipalsky was officially said to have resigned "in order to carry out his duties as... MORE

As it has in the past, Moscow ensured yesterday that its blossoming friendship with China was highlighted alongside news of its negotiations with NATO. In Beijing on an official visit, Russian deputy foreign minister Grigori Karasin announced that preparations were proceeding for a summit meeting... MORE

Baltic Assembly chairman Arnold Ruutel has called for the creation of a regional security organization beginning with an Estonian-Latvian-Lithuanian Security Council, which would develop into a military alliance of the three countries. The responsibilities of the alliance would include securing the three countries' borders with... MORE

The Khrunichev Space Center in Moscow -- builder of all Russia's manned space stations and many of its space launch vehicles -- received a welcome infusion of cash yesterday. It was in the form of a $35 million line of credit from the International Moscow... MORE

The first round of formal negotiations between NATO and Russia on a much discussed political agreement -- aimed at easing Moscow's opposition to NATO's planned enlargement -- came to a quiet close in Moscow yesterday. Neither NATO secretary-general Javier Solana nor Russian foreign minister Yevgeni... MORE

The Russian government is reported to have reached agreement with the Central Selling Organization (the De Beers'-led international diamond cartel) and the two will sign a new marketing agreement shortly. The news comes as a surprise. Negotiations dragged on throughout 1996 until, frustrated by the... MORE

Aleksandr Shokhin, first deputy speaker of the Russian Duma and a former first deputy premier, says his talks this week with IMF deputy managing director Stanley Fischer have convinced him that the IMF team now in Moscow is satisfied with Russia's economic progress and that... MORE

Communist deputy Viktor Ilyukhin has appealed to the Duma Council to schedule a debate on the possibility of ousting Yeltsin from office on health grounds (Interfax, January 20) Ilyukhin's earlier effort to get the Russian parliament to debate this issue failed when the Duma's lawyers... MORE

Lebed also told reporters in Washington yesterday that Russia should reconsider its opposition to NATO enlargement because that stance is isolating Russia and complicating its efforts to deal with important internal security problems. "I take NATO's expansion very calmly," Lebed was quoted as saying. (AP,... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin left the hospital yesterday after treatment for double pneumonia and moved to his residence near Moscow. There he will continue his convalescence. (Russian Television, January 20) Lebed Wants Inauguration Like Clinton's...