In Addis Ababa yesterday the Russian Ambassador signed the Pelindaba Treaty establishing an African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. Russia was the last of the 5 declared nuclear powers to sign. Russia had balked at the treaty when it opened for signature in June, expressing concern... MORE

The Prince of Wales yesterday completed a three-day visit to Ukraine at the invitation of President Leonid Kuchma. The heir to the British throne met with Kuchma and other Ukrainian officials in Kiev and with Ukrainian military commanders in Sevastopol. He visited battlefields of the... MORE

In a joint communique released yesterday, Ukraine and Georgia recorded the "full concurrence of their interests, positions, and assessments regarding the key problems of international relations and cooperation within the CIS." (Interfax-Ukraine, November 6) The communique capped Ukrainian prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko's three-day visit and... MORE

Georgia's naval commander, Rear Adm. Aleksandr Javahishvili, yesterday spelled out what Georgia claims "for the moment" as its share of the ex-Soviet Black Sea Fleet. Georgia needs several minesweepers, small missile cutters, and some auxiliary vessels, the admiral said in Poti, where his Ukrainian counterpart... MORE

Russian political leaders spoke in generally positive terms yesterday of U.S. president Bill Clinton's reelection, but their preference for dealing with a known quantity was balanced by a recognition that the two countries face a host of potentially divisive issues. One unnamed senior diplomat described... MORE

Today and tomorrow are public holidays in Russia, traditionally held to mark the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. In Moscow this morning, Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov addressed a crowd of around 5,000 demonstrators, waving red flags and singing Soviet-era songs. A BBC correspondent... MORE

The Russian government has placed a temporary hold on the negotiations between South Africa's De Beers Corporation and Russia's Almazy Rossii-Sakha diamond company (ARS) over the sale of Russia's export diamonds. (Itar-Tass, AP, November 5) Under a draft deal negotiated with De Beers last month,... MORE

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chairman of the board of Rosprom (earlier he was chairman of Menatep Bank) has added his voice to that of Gazprom chairman Rem Vyakhirev, who earlier this week called on Russian entrepreneurs to unite in search of solutions to the country's financial problems.... MORE

State Duma member and Russian defense intellectual Aleksey Arbatov has argued in a recent issue of Obshchaya gazeta that funding of the armed forces has to date been conducted in an unworkable fashion. The process starts with the government's proposed budget, one that in theory... MORE

As previously predicted in the Monitor (see Monitor, October 25 and 31) and contrary to misleading reports since the October 24 Yeltsin-Kuchma meeting, a breakthrough in the Black Sea Fleet negotiations is not imminent. Yesterday in Kiev Ukrainian leaders stood their ground at a new... MORE