The Russian Foreign Ministry's chief spokesman, Gennady Tarasov, announced yesterday that Moscow is preparing a draft resolution, to be submitted to the UN General Assembly, that condemns Estonia and Latvia for allegedly "depriving the Russian-speaking population of civil and political rights." (Itar-Tass, October 10) Earlier... MORE

Tajik president Imomali Rahmonov yesterday gave the fullest public expression to date of the policy toward Afghanistan on which Moscow seeks consensus with the Central Asian states. That position envisages an immediate ceasefire and negotiations among "all influential political forces in Afghanistan," and a UN-sponsored... MORE

On a two-day visit to Moscow, Moldovan prime minister Andrei Sangheli and foreign minister Mihai Popov held talks with Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov, defense minister Igor Rodionov, and the Duma and Federation Council chairmen, Gennady Seleznev and Yegor Stroyev. Sangheli... MORE

A publishing house in Lviv (western Ukraine), which is a political stronghold of Ukraine's national-democrats, has just printed Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev's new book, "Chechnya: The Struggle for Freedom." A consignment of 5,000 Russian-language copies of the book was confiscated by Russian customs at the... MORE

Factional strife continues to dominate the political scene in Crimea. Yesterday, the parliament of the autonomous republic ousted its speaker, Yevhen Suprnyuk, who is currently hospitalized following a mysterious kidnapping. Pro-Russian parliamentarians considered Suprnyuk too accommodating to Ukraine's central government. Until Suprunyuk's replacement is chosen,... MORE

Some 110 out of 199 Belarusan deputies have signed a proposal for a compromise in the constitutional conflict with president Aleksandr Lukashenko, essentially on his terms. The proposal envisages: renouncing the parliament's constitutional draft and the plan to put it to a referendum on November... MORE

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has painted a dismal picture of the Russian army, concluding that despite Boris Yeltsin's reelection the "decline in capability in all departments of the Russian armed forces seems set to continue." In its annual report on the world's... MORE

Russia's Duma yesterday voted to summon security chief Aleksandr Lebed to the chamber on October 25 in order to hear why he had failed to condemn NATO's expansion plans during his recent visit to Brussels. The Duma action came after Lebed, in remarks to reporters... MORE

The organizing committee of a Lezgin people's congress yesterday issued to Azerbaijan a second warning. (For first warning see Monitor, October 9) Yesterday's "declaration" calls on Russia to deploy Russian border troops on Azerbaijan's borders with Turkey and Iran. (Interfax, October 9). The call dovetails... MORE

Sergei Kharlamov, deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, appeared late last night on Independent Television (NTV) and made a statement on behalf of Aleksandr Lebed. The broadcast was not announced beforehand, suggesting that it was arranged only at the last minute. According to Kharlamov,... MORE