Russian president Boris Yeltsin's foreign policy aide, Dmitry Ryurikov, stated at a Moscow briefing yesterday that "the Russian fleet alone must be based in Sevastopol. We are working on that." Ryurikov added that Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin's planned visit to Ukraine has been postponed indefinitely... MORE

At his briefing yesterday, Ryurikov asserted that "a closer Russian-Ukrainian economic, political, and military union is not in sight for the time being, in the short term." Ryurikov argued that Ukrainian history includes phases of "assertion of Ukrainian statehood to the detriment of close relations... MORE

The commander of Georgia's border troops, Maj. Gen. Valery Chkheidze, yesterday announced that the country's fledgling navy -- comprised of eight cutters -- began on November 19 to patrol Georgian coastal waters. The move signifies "a further step toward asserting the country's independence," Chkheidze stated.... MORE

Georgia's ambassador to Russia, Vazha Lordkipanidze, and Chechnya's external relations minister, Ruslan Kutaev, conferred on November 18 and 19 in Moscow on developing bilateral relations. The two reached preliminary agreement on a meeting between Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze and Chechen president-in-waiting Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. The Georgians... MORE

In his first visit to the U.S., former Kremlin security supremo Aleksandr Lebed met yesterday in New York with members of the Council on Foreign Relations. Lebed warned them that "the wrong people" could get access to Russia's nuclear arsenal, and called for greater Western... MORE

First Deputy Premier Vladimir Potanin is in New York to promote Russia's forthcoming eurobond -- the country's first international financing since 1917. (Itar-Tass, November 19) Interest was high last week when Finance Minister Aleksandr Livshits made a series of presentations in Western European financial centers,... MORE

Rescue operations ceased yesterday at the site of the November 16 explosion in a block of military apartments in Dagestan. In all, 106 people were recovered from the rubble. Of those, 68 were dead, 20 of them children. The cause of the blast is still... MORE

Congressional GOP leaders sent a letter to Russia's president on November 18 expressing shock at the recent murder of U.S. businessman Paul Tatum. The letter also warned that the shooting could jeopardize American aid to Russia, and it said that the general "atmosphere of unrestrained... MORE

The Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday denied the recent Israeli charge that Russian scientists were helping Syria manufacture chemical weapons. (See Monitor, November 19).Ministry spokesman Mikhail Demurin said the charge was "absolutely groundless," and complained that such statements are "totally destructive from the point of view... MORE

The Ka-52 "Alligator" was unveiled by the Kamov helicopter design bureau yesterday. It is a two-seat version of the Ka-50 "Black Shark" that incorporates some Western avionics. Kamov hopes to sell it to the Russian ground and air forces and to market it abroad. It... MORE