Russian Defense Council secretary Yuri Baturin, who recently returned from a trip to the Balkans, said on October 31 that Moscow should aim to establish a military base in that part of the world. According to Baturin, Russia has always had interests and influence in... MORE

On October 31 Hungary became the 65th signatory of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention to ratify the treaty and thus it will enter into force on April 29, 1997. While the convention still has not been ratified by the U.S. or Russia -- possessors of... MORE

In a decision awaited with trepidation, the Belarus Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that the constitutional referendum demanded by President Aleksandr Lukashenko and scheduled for November 24 can only have a consultative character, and its outcome would not be legally binding. (ORT, November 4) Ukraine and... MORE

The creation of a Eurasian Transport Corridor is to be discussed during a visit to Georgia by Ukrainian prime minister Pavel Lazarenko. According to a Georgian official, Azerbaijan will also be involved in the project, which would stretch from Baku to Odessa. Ukraine plans to... MORE

Voters rejected Kremlin-supported incumbents in gubernatorial elections on November 3 in Pskov and Magadan oblasts. These were the latest results in a series of regional elections across Russia, and suggest a new tendency by voters to reject government-approved candidates. In remote Magadan oblast in Russia's... MORE

Under the rallying cry "for work, wages and social guarantees," workers will launch protest actions across much of Russia today. According to the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FITUR), some 10 million workers will take part in various demonstrations. (Interfax, November 4) The... MORE

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov of Moscow met yesterday in Moscow with the Mayor of Grozny, Lecho Dudaev (a cousin of the late president Djohar Dudaev). Luzhkov promised that Moscow would provide concrete help rebuilding Chechnya's war-ravaged capital. Luzhkov offered to start with school textbooks and scholarships... MORE

The deputy commander of the Baltic Fleet yesterday told a Danish group visiting Kaliningrad oblast that there are no more than 30,000 troops in the Russian enclave nestled between Poland and Lithuania. (Interfax/BNS, November 4) Each of these countries has expressed concern in the past... MORE

In his latest two speeches, including an All Souls' Day address to the country, Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko called for Christian Orthodoxy to become the official religion of Belarus. Deploring the "de-ideologization" and "spiritual vacuum" of the post-Soviet period, particularly among the youth, Lukashenko urged... MORE

Ukraine's Communists, socialists, and other leftist organizations celebrated the October Revolution anniversary in style at the Kiev National Opera over the weekend. Delegations of like-minded parties from Belarus, China, North Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, and rump Yugoslavia attended. Ukrainian Communist party first secretary Petro Simonenko's keynote... MORE