Russian president Boris Yeltsin has established the State Military Inspectorate in his office, his press service announced on November 1. The explanation given was that the new body would enable the president to execute his responsibilities as commander-in-chief of the armed forces more effectively. (Interfax,... MORE

A Latvian delegation headed by parliament chairman Alfreds Cepanis returned disappointed from talks in Paris with senior French politicians of various parties. While supportive of Latvia's admission to the European Union, the French hosts discouraged Baltic hopes for accession to NATO, dwelt on the need... MORE

President Aleksandr Lukashenko has dismissed Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Leanid Maltsau for being drunk during a reception at which he was unable to read a prepared speech. Some local -- including military -- observers surmise that the president set up the general, who had reportedly... MORE

Amid reports of mounting tensions within the armed forced, Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin traveled to the city of Ryazan on November 1, where he met with disgruntled troops and cadets from a local airborne forces garrison, as well as with strategic bomber pilots and... MORE

Russian Security Council secretary Ivan Rybkin told Russian TV on November 1 that Russia's ambassador in London, veteran diplomat Anatoly Adamishin, is among the candidates for the post of deputy secretary of the Security Council. Rybkin also said that Nikolai Mikhailov will carry on as... MORE

Several Russian dailies speculated on November 1 that Russia's Security Council will soon play a more prominent role in dealings with NATO. The speculation was based on the statement of an unnamed Security Council official, who said on October 31 that a "well-known diplomat" would... MORE

On November 2, three days after his appointment as Security Council deputy secretary, Boris Berezovsky traveled to the north Caucasus to meet for the first time with leaders of Chechnya's transition government. The unannounced visit took journalists by surprise. Berezovsky arrived without an entourage --... MORE

According to Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Krylov, "normalization of Russian-Estonian relations is impossible without cardinal changes in the Estonian authorities' discriminatory policy toward our compatriots in that country." That, moreover, will not suffice: Russia "categorically rejects the Estonian leadership's attempts at joining NATO... and... MORE

The third round of Russian-Latvian border delimitation talks, just held in Riga, stumbled against the Russian side's refusal to acknowledge the validity of the 1920 Russian-Latvian peace treaty from the standpoint of international law, and the continuity of Latvian statehood during the Soviet occupation period.... MORE

Ukrainian prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko has dismissed the director-general of the Zaporizha nuclear power plant (NPP), and had called to account the management of the Rivne NPP. He also announced his intention to dismiss the director-general of the South Ukraine NPP or -- depending on... MORE