Latest Monitor Articles

OSCE QUESTIONS ARMENIAN ELECTION OUTCOME; MANUKIAN TURNS TO COURT.

In its final report on Armenia's presidential election, the OSCE Observer Mission ascertained "numerous irregularities including some very serious breaches of the election law;" collusion among precinct electoral commissions and the incumbent president's proxies; unlawful presence of the police at voting stations; ballot box stuffing;... MORE

SCRIPT DISPUTE FLARES UP IN TRANSDNIESTER.

Moldovan president Mircea Snegur has appealed officially to international groups for help in reopening Moldovan schools closed by Transdniester authorities in retaliation for the teaching of the native language in the Latin script rather than in Cyrillic. Snegur's appeal for intercession with the Transdniester authorities... MORE

RODIONOV BRINGS IN SOME OF HIS OWN MEN.

President Boris Yeltsin -- undoubtedly at the urging of Defense Minister Igor Rodionov -- has finally started to make some personnel changes in top Defense Ministry and General Staff posts. In an October 2 decree he named Lt. Gen. Grigory Kasperovich -- the chief of... MORE

LATVIAN-RUSSIAN BORDER TALKS ALSO DEADLOCKED.

Riga and Moscow announced yesterday that a second round of bilateral talks on border delimitation, held on October 1 and 2 in Moscow, ended in disagreement, as had the first round in April. Latvia seeks recognition of the validity of the 1920 Russian-Latvian peace treaty... MORE

NUCLEAR RESEARCHER FORMALLY INDICTED FOR ESPIONAGE.

Aleksandr Nikitin, the retired Russian naval officer charged with treason for his co-authorship of a report on the nuclear hazards created by Russia's Northern Fleet, has been formally indicted. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on October 2 that it had concluded its investigation into... MORE

YELTSIN PRAISES AND REBUKES LEBED.

The government's change of heart came after Russia's hospitalized president, Boris Yeltsin, held his first meeting with Aleksandr Lebed in eight weeks (that is, since before the Khasavyurt accords were signed). The same day, Yeltsin addressed the nation in the first of a new series... MORE

AZERBAIJAN SENTENCES FIRST BATCH OF OMON PLOTTERS.

The military bench of Azerbaijan's Supreme Court has sentenced 17 former special police officers to prison terms ranging from 8 to 15 years for their participation in the March 1995 coup attempt against President Haidar Aliev's government. The officers belonged to the OMON unit in... MORE

SPOILED FOR CHOICE

. A by-election is to be held in Tula, south of Moscow, where voters last December chose Gen. Aleksandr Lebed as their parliamentary representative. Lebed resigned his seat after joining the Yeltsin team. Now two other well-known generals have declared their intention of contesting the... MORE

RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH CHECHEN OPPOSITION LEADER.

The Russian government is pressing ahead with the Chechen peace settlement despite strong opposition from parliament and even from some members of the government itself. Only a day after Duma members accused Security Council Secretary Aleksandr Lebed of "treason" for his efforts to end the... MORE

CHERNOMYRDIN CRITICIZES NATO; ADDRESSES CHECHNYA.

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin jumped on the anti-NATO bandwagon on October 2, suggesting to reporters in Geneva that the Western alliance should put its enlargement plans on hold and focus instead on improving relations with Russia. Chernomyrdin, who seems intent on carving out a... MORE