Incoming U.S. national security advisor Sandy Berger has identified the building of a "democratic and united Europe around an expanding NATO and a partnership with Russia" as the top foreign policy priority of the Clinton Administration in its second term. Berger also identified a "cluster... MORE

According to a Russian daily, the Federal Security Service plans to create a new department that will attempt to influence the way in which issues deemed to be of importance to Russian national security are reported by the media. Moscow's failure to shape public opinion... MORE

Kazakhstan placed its first $200 million eurobond issue on December 9. According to Kazakhstan's finance minister, yield on the Kazakh eurobonds will be 9.25 percent and the repayment period three years. Although demand exceeded supply by nearly three times, the Kazakh government--taking into account the... MORE

Lithuania's new government yesterday had its program approved by parliament and was sworn in. The program envisages acceleration of market reforms, ambitious growth targets, all-out efforts to join the European Union and NATO, and close relations with Poland; relations with Russia or CIS are not... MORE

Minsk police yesterday used truncheons to disperse a crowd of up to 4,000, many of them students, attracted by the opening of McDonalds' first fast-food restaurant in Belarus. The company, which intends to open two additional restaurants there, had prepared an elaborate festivity as Belarus... MORE

Marking International Human Rights Day yesterday, Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze officially instituted a moratorium on death sentences and forwarded amendments to the penal code for immediate parliamentary enactment. The amendments eliminate capital punishment for high treason and all other crimes except premeditated murder with aggravating... MORE

Russian diplomats and the "peacekeeping" military command in Tajikistan have warned that any Tajik opposition attacks on Russian troops would be answered with "extreme force.". The warning is a response to opposition threats of retaliation against Russian forces for using their aviation to support Tajik... MORE

When they meet in Madrid in July next year, the leaders of the 16 NATO countries will invite "one or more countries" to start accession negotiations with the Alliance, with the goal of welcoming the new member(s) by the time of NATO's 50th anniversary in... MORE

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin told the upper house of the Russian parliament yesterday that the government will pay wage and pension arrears to state-employees by the end of this month. The only exception will be arrears to the military, which, he promised, will be... MORE

Two months after the previous commander of the Airborne Troops had been sacked, President Boris Yeltsin yesterday named Lt. Gen. Georgi Shpak to the post, thus ending speculation that a non-paratrooper might be brought in to lead the airborne forces during their controversial downsizing. Shpak... MORE