Russian deputy prime minister and finance minister Aleksandr Livshits told a press conference at the Russian embassy in Washington on October 2 that at least 90 percent of the military's unpaid back wages --which he estimated at 10 trillion rubles -- were covered in the... MORE

The Georgian parliament yesterday adopted a decision in which it officially declared Russia's political mediation between Tbilisi and Abkhazia "unsatisfactory," and held Russian "peacekeeping" forces responsible for shielding the planned Abkhaz elections and thus legitimizing the ethnic cleansing of Georgians. The decision stipulates that all... MORE

The Ukrainian government has appointed Col. Gen. Kostyantyn Morozov as the country's representative to NATO and, concurrently, to the West European Union. Morozov carries the official title of "principal coordinator for Ukraine-NATO cooperation on military issues." Born in 1944, Morozov served from 1991 to 1993... MORE

Russian Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Viktor Kravchenko and the Fleet's chief-of-staff, Vice-Admiral Pyotr Svyatashov, announced in separate statements in Sevastopol and Krasnodar that the Fleet had completed its main annual exercise, conducted off Crimea. Some 40 warships and auxiliary vessels, land-based aviation, coastal artillery... MORE

Russian Defense Minister Igor Rodionov told reporters on October 1 that it will be impossible for the military to transition to an all-volunteer force by the year 2000 as President Boris Yeltsin had directed it to do. Like most of the problems currently facing the... MORE

The Russian Defense Ministry's civilian workers are preparing for a nation-wide strike beginning November 1 over their unpaid wages. Their trade union held a plenum on October 1 and placed more than one million members in a "pre-strike condition." The union's chairman, Spartak Arzhavkin, said... MORE

A row erupted yesterday when Gazprom, Russia's second largest company and the world's biggest producer of natural gas, accused the Russian government of freezing the bank accounts of some of Gazprom's subsidiaries to punish it for unpaid taxes. Gazprom is furious for two reasons. First,... MORE

Lebed did not take these attacks lying down. He told the Duma that he had completed the mission entrusted to him by Yeltsin in July and brokered a peace in Chechnya. He acknowledged that many difficult military and political problems remained to be resolved, but... MORE

The Russian president has slipped to third place in the listing of Russia's most influential politicians, published each month by the newspaper Nezavisimaya gazeta. The latest listing puts Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin in first place and Security Council Secretary Aleksandr Lebed in second. (Nezavisimaya gazeta,... MORE

On the evening of October 1 an official from the South Korean consulate was murdered by unknown assailants outside his apartment in Vladivostok, Russia's foreign ministry announced yesterday. The 54-year-old South Korean diplomat had been in charge of North Korean affairs, and the death prompted... MORE