Ukrainian defense minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk said yesterday in Kiev that Ukraine is still willing to sell all the Tu-160 "Blackjack" and Tu-95MS "Bear" bombers that it inherited from the Soviet Union. Last March then Russian defense minister Pavel Grachev had agreed to buy 25 of... MORE

The Russian parliament has adopted in the first reading a bill on Russia's territorial integrity and the inviolability of its borders. Lawmakers said the legislation is needed to protect Russian territory in the face of claims by Estonia, Japan, and China. But the bill also... MORE

Belarusan minister for CIS affairs Ivan Bambiza stated yesterday that a "consensus" between Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Aleksandr Lukashenko had opened the way in 1997 for joint measures in the "priority areas" of national security, foreign policy, and protection of the internal market -- listed... MORE

During a press conference in Moscow yesterday, Russian defense minister Igor Rodionov appeared to argue for higher levels of military spending and to place himself in opposition to government proposals that would cut Russia's regular armed forces to 1.2 million men. Addressing reporters in tandem... MORE

The fight is on in Moscow to coopt Russia's resurgent Cossack movement. Communists and nationalists in the Duma tried to win Cossack support this week with a Communist-sponsored bill that would grant Cossacks the right to bear arms. The bid was thwarted by liberal parliamentarians.... MORE

The cinema in a village in Altai krai in southern Siberia responded last year to Russia's pervasive shortage of cash by accepting two eggs as the admission price from its predominantly rural patrons. Now that winter has come, when hens lay fewer eggs, the cinema... MORE

The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan yesterday sentenced 31 ex-officers of the Baku OMON to terms ranging from 2 to 14 years of severe-regime imprisonment. Four civilian accomplices received probation terms and two were cleared of the charges. The defendants participated in the OMON's March 1995... MORE

The OSCE's Permanent Council decided yesterday to send a team of between 60 and 70 observers to Chechnya for the January 27 elections. An OSCE official told the Monitor the decision could be reversed if the security situation in the republic were to deteriorate between... MORE

Optimism is on the rise in Russia. In a nationwide poll of 1,500 people taken at the end of December 1996, 29 percent of respondents said they expected to do better in 1997 than in 1996. In a similar poll taken at the end of... MORE

The mystery continued yesterday over who, if anyone, had invited Russia's former security chief, Aleksandr Lebed, to President Bill Clinton's inaugural celebration. The White House denied sending the invitation, as did the Joint Inaugural Committee, made up of Congressional leaders. But Mike McCurry, the White... MORE