The personnel in the Russian Northern and Pacific Fleets are not getting their back wages despite official assurances that they would. According to the first deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet, only 7 billion rubles of the fleet's 450 billion ruble wage arrears have been... MORE

Musicians of the Shostakovich Philharmonia Society, returning to Russia after a tour of Japan, were robbed soon after arriving at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport. A passenger in the airport bus pretended to be choking; when he asked the bus to stop, armed men boarded and... MORE

More than a few discordant notes were struck over the past several days as civilian and military leaders huddled in Moscow to discuss the army's financial crisis and military reform. During a second meeting of Russia's recently created Defense Council on November 11, the heads... MORE

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin yesterday received fifteen of Russia's newly-elected regional governors and congratulated them on their victories. (RTR, November 12) Chernomyrdin said the Kremlin was willing to sign power-sharing agreements between the federal center and whichever of Russia's regions wants to be next to... MORE

Russian security council secretary Ivan Rybkin yesterday visited Chechnya and took part in the work of the joint commission on regulating the Chechen peace process. In the evening, Rybkin met in Nazran with members of the Chechen government. The leaders of the other North Caucasus... MORE

Russia's financial support to the CIS countries has been dwindling in recent years. Concurrently, however, awareness of the importance of the CIS market for Russian exports has been building among Russian government and business leaders. Increasingly, they see the CIS as a convenient and necessary... MORE

Fatherland Union-The Conservatives and that party's allies increased their gains in the new Lithuanian parliament in the second round of the legislative elections. Held on November 10, the second round involved runoffs in the single mandate-constituencies. The final returns, issued yesterday, show that the FU... MORE

In the wake of Kiev's recent decision to resist escalating Russian demands in negotiations on the Black Sea Fleet (see Monitor, November 7), Russia's Duma is considering a bill today that would confer "Russian status" on the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol. Cleared by three Duma... MORE

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry leaders said yesterday that Kiev would, if necessary, turn to the international community, and specifically to permanent members of the UN Security Council and to the OSCE, with a request to protect Ukraine's territorial integrity. Ukrainian foreign minister Hennady Udovenko and his... MORE

A sticking point in the five-year talks between Russia and Ukraine over the division of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet remains the bases -- or more precisely -- one base: the historic naval stronghold of Sevastopol. Ukrainian first deputy prime minister Vasily Durdinets said... MORE