The third Kilo-class diesel-powered submarine bought by Iran from Russia arrived at the northern end of the Suez Canal this week on the last leg of its trip to the Gulf. The U.S. and Iran's Gulf neighbors have expressed alarm at Iran's naval build-up. Russia... MORE

Uzbek prime minister Utkir Sultanov's December visit to Japan has produced two breakthrough deals for Uzbekistan, one of the world's largest producers and exporters of raw cotton but which was deprived of a modern textile industry during Soviet rule. Japan's Marubeni and Mitsubishi conglomerates have... MORE

Moldovan president-elect Petru Lucinschi chose Romania for his first post-election visit on December 30. Lucinschi conferred with Romania's new president, Emil Constantinescu, who lead a democratic, right-of-center coalition to victory over the ruling neo-Communists in Romania's November parliamentary and presidential elections. The two presidents agreed... MORE

A Kyrgyz Muslim Kurultay on December 26 elected Mullah Abdysatar as the country's new Mufti and head of a revamped Muslim Spiritual Board, the country's top religious body. Government officials attended the congress, called on just a few days' notice by the State Commission on... MORE

Lithuania's Education Minister and eldest cabinet member, Zigmas Zinkevicius, has been publicly criticized by Foreign Minister Algirdas Saudargas, who also heads the Christian-Democratic party of which Zinkevicius is a member. In a December 31 official statement Saudargas expressed regret over Zinkevicius' proposals, aired in a... MORE

In a December 25 speech that reflected anything but peace on earth and good will toward men, Russian defense minister Igor Rodionov accused the U.S. of trying to dominate the world and characterized the NATO alliance as a potential source of direct military danger to... MORE

Former Kremlin security chief Aleksandr Lebed announced long awaited plans on December 27 to form a new party, to be called the Russian Popular Republican party (RPRP). Lebed told a congress of the nationalist Home and Motherland movement near Moscow that the new party would... MORE

There was good news for the Russian government on December 28 when the lower house of the Russian parliament approved the draft 1997 federal budget in its third reading. (Interfax, Itar-Tass, AP, December 28) From now on, major changes to the budget will not be... MORE

Back at work in the Kremlin, President Boris Yeltsin vowed in a nationwide radio address on December 25 to resolve the problem of wage and pensions arrears. He said that preventing tax evasion and imposing stronger state control over the sale of alcoholic drinks could... MORE

An additional regiment of SS-25 road-mobile ICBMs went on combat duty in Russia on December 27. (Interfax, December 28) The unit had been deployed in Belarus when the Soviet Union disintegrated. It is now located in northern Russia, probably at Vypolzovo, mid-way between Moscow and... MORE