Bilateral trade between Russia and China in the first six months of 1996 reached $3.27 billion dollars, up more than 41 percent from the same period last year, a top Chinese official said in Moscow on September 1. According to Chinese state councilor Li Tieying,... MORE

. Russian security chief Aleksandr Lebed told a press conference today that between 70,000 and 90,000 people have been killed in Chechnya since the war began, and that three times that many have been injured. (BBC World Service, September 3) The number of dead given... MORE

Japan's Chioda and Nichimen and Turkey's Gama petrochemical companies have completed the reconstruction and modernization of the catalytic reforming plant in the city of Turkmenbashi at a cost of $125 million. The plant is one of three international investment projects at Turkmenistan's largest oil-refining complex,... MORE

On his visit to Moscow this week, Tajik prime minister Yahie Azimov met with the leaders of the Tajik "National Revival Bloc," the former prime ministers Abdumalik Abdullajanov, Jamshed Karimov, and Abdujalil Samadov, all resident in Moscow. Russia's Foreign Ministry mediated the meeting, and the... MORE

The Russian Foreign Ministry's new chief spokesman, Gennady Tarasov, yesterday condemned the expulsion from Estonia of Vladimir Zhirinovsky's representative Pyotr Rozhok as an "anti-Russian action" reflecting "the Estonian leadership's overall policy." The Duma's foreign affairs committee chairman Vladimir Lukin (Yabloko) similarly described the case as... MORE

. In overlapping visits to Kiev, two senior U.S. officials held talks with Ukrainian leaders on security issues and Ukraine's relations with the U.S. and NATO. General George Joulwan, commander-in-chief of NATO forces in Europe, and Senator Richard Lugar met with Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma,... MORE

Uzbek president Islam Karimov yesterday awarded prizes to participants in the song contest "Uzbekistan is my Motherland," announced a decision to make this contest an annual event, and instituted a regular national holiday to mark it. On the preceding day, Karimov inspected the nearly completed... MORE

Saratov's gubernatorial election typifies two trends seen in many Russian regions. One is the fact that, because governors are no longer to be appointed by the Kremlin, regional elites are becoming increasingly independent of the political center. The influence of the Moscow-based political parties is... MORE

A city festival is being celebrated in Saratov on August 30, as the city and its surrounding oblast prepare to elect a new governor on September 1. This will be the first time the region will choose a governor in a democratic election. Until now,... MORE

The lineup of the three candidates in Saratov's gubernatorial election provides a snapshot of the regional elite that perhaps typifies other parts of Russia. All three are local men. All have been or still are members of the Communist party. All have links to local... MORE