Three Russian projects are among 37 foreign military technologies the Pentagon will evaluate in the next fiscal year, according to a Pentagon announcement on October 8. Heading the list is the M-31 supersonic sea skimming Target, a modification of the Zvezda Design Bureau's Kh-31 anti-radar... MORE

A Russian Foreign Ministry "senior official" said yesterday that Moscow would consider returning the Baltic archives to those three states, provided Russia's Duma passes an enabling law and the Baltic states "clarify why they need the archives." Moscow would return the archives only if satisfied... MORE

By the end of the year, voters in 52 Russian regions will have elected their governors, most for the first time. So far, the elections have brought neither the Communist landslide that Moscow feared nor the consolidation of Kremlin-friendly incumbents Moscow was hoping for. Voters... MORE

Talks between Russian and Western leaders on Moscow's future relations with NATO continued in several different forums yesterday. The most high-profile exchange took place in Belgium, where Russian security chief Aleksandr Lebed was given a tour of NATO's SHAPE headquarters at Mons, near Brussels, and... MORE

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma has decreed an increase in military salaries and benefits for officers and NCOs, and established a new system of bonuses and special awards tied to performance and length of service. The compensation increase averages 180 percent for various ranks. Defense Minister... MORE

Addressing the upper house of the Russian parliament yesterday, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, expressed full approval of Aleksandr Lebed's peacemaking activity in Chechnya. (Interfax, October 8) Thanks to these efforts, he said, "the main goal was accomplished: the war has been stopped." Moreover, the prime... MORE

Chernomyrdin's unequivocal support for Aleksandr Lebed in his conflict with Interior Minister Kulikov had an immediate effect. Within hours, Kulikov softened his position. The Khasavyurt accords (which, a day before, he described as "colossal and absolutely unjustified concessions") should be "the point of departure for... MORE

Russia has been awarded a 2B credit rating by the three leading international rating agencies, Aleksandr Livshits has announced. (NTV, October 7) This puts Russia in the same category as India, Mexico, Hungary, and Slovakia, and ahead of Turkey, Venezuela and Brazil. Livshits said the... MORE

Russian defense minister General Igor Rodionov has told the newspaper Komsomolskaya pravda that 2,941 army troops had been killed in Chechnya as of October 4. His total does not include air force personnel or troops from other agencies. It might be some time before a... MORE

In remarks before a closed parliamentary hearing yesterday, Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin reportedly recommended a special tax to raise money for Russia's under-financed military forces. Chernomyrdin also suggested that a plan was being drafted to direct funds from Russian arms sales to the military.... MORE