. In addition to the elections for governors taking place in 52 regions around Russia, elections for regional legislatures are being held this fall in 18 regions. Kaluga oblast, where elections to the 40-seat regional Duma were held on August 25, was the first. The... MORE

Iran's ambassador to Russia was quoted in an Iranian newspaper yesterday as saying that Moscow has agreed to transfer aerospace technology to Iran and that Tehran expects to launch the republic's first educational satellite within the next three years. Training provided by Russian professors is... MORE

Command-staff exercises involving Russian mobile forces began yesterday under the direction of General Staff chief Mikhail Kolesnikov, a Defense Ministry source reports. Staff officers representing various service branches will be taking part in the three-day drill along with representatives from key defense ministry directorates. (Interfax,... MORE

Former finance minister Vladimir Panskov has been named first deputy economics minister, a demotion that nonetheless keeps him in the corridors of power. Panskov is expected to be assigned to taxation issues, in which he is expert. (Rossiiskie vesti, August 27) Labor Unrest Continues.

Coalminers in Perm oblast have been on hunger strike for a week because of wage arrears. Sporadic strikes continue to plague the coalmining industry, despite this week's decision by miners' leaders to postpone a threatened nationwide strike. Meanwhile, Russia's health minister has warned of the... MORE

No problem is foreseen over the payment of this month's tranche of the IMF's extended Fund facility to Russia, economists say. IMF officials claim Russia is broadly fulfilling the terms of its $10.1 billion loan agreement and the Fund's board of directors is expected to... MORE

Russian President Boris Yeltsin has appointed Anatoly Kuznetsov to head the Presidential Security Service (SBP). The burly Kuznetsov has been Yeltsin's personal bodyguard for several years. The SBP, which number almost 1,500 men, has been in the doldrums since Yeltsin sacked Aleksandr Korzhakov in late... MORE

Russia's commander in Chechnya and the Chechen chief of staff yesterday signed an agreement to implement the armistice negotiated August 22 by Aleksandr Lebed. Russian troops are to complete their withdrawal to specified lowland sites outside Grozny by September 1, pending withdrawal of most of... MORE

Azerbaijani president Heydar Aliev and his foreign trade minister discussed in Baku with the prefect of the northern Iranian province of Gilan, Ali Akbar Taha'i, a plan to expand the free trade zone in the town of Astara in the eastern sector of the Azerbaijani-Iranian... MORE

The Tajik government claimed over the weekend that its troops have recaptured from the opposition the strategic town of Tavildara, which has exchanged hand several times in recent months. But the government acknowledged that the opposition retains the strategic heights there and is closing in... MORE