Like leaders in a number of other foreign capitals, Clinton administration officials yesterday breathed a sigh of relief over the tentative cease-fire agreement reached earlier in Chechnya. A State Department spokesman said that the U.S. welcomes the agreement and views it as a "positive step... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin returned to work in the Kremlin yesterday, apparently in better health than he was when he last appeared in public on August 9. He approved the appointment of seven new ministers and gave an interview to Russian television. Speaking slowly but clearly... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday bluntly rejected foreign criticism of Russian policy in the Caucasus and suggested that the Chechen rebels were responsible for the latest upsurge in violence. A Foreign Ministry spokesman also pointed to Aleksandr Lebed's peace-making efforts and said it was hoped that... MORE

Germany's Foreign Ministry claimed yesterday that it had received assurances from the Russian government that federal forces would observe the recently brokered cease-fire in Chechnya. A German diplomat sent to Moscow reported meeting with three Russian deputy foreign ministers and a deputy defense minister. They... MORE

Russia's chief security official Aleksandr Lebed signed an armistice agreement with Chechen chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov in Chechen-controlled Novye Atagi yesterday evening following day-long talks. The agreement goes into effect as of noon (08:00 GMT) today. It provides for termination of all combat actions,... MORE

Tajik president Imomali Rahmonov's defense and security adviser, Zafar Ikramov, said today that opposition forces are advancing from Tavildara, aiming at this stage to seize the strategic Surkhob bridge on the Dushanbe-Garm-Badakhshan highway. Success would enable the opposition to cut the whole of central Tajikistan... MORE

Sergei Glazyev, newly appointed director of the Security Council's Economic Security Directorate, was born in Zaporozhe in eastern Ukraine, not western Ukraine as incorrectly stated in yesterday's Monitor. The Monitor is a publication of the Jamestown Foundation. It is researched and written under the direction... MORE

"Russia is Our Home" (ROH), the pro-government movement which plans to establish itself as a political party in the fall, has drawn up a list of candidates for the gubernatorial elections that will take place in 50 Russian regions by year's end. In most regions,... MORE

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing today summoned Ukrainian ambassador to protest against the visit to Ukraine of Taiwan's vice president and prime minister Lien Chan. In retaliation Beijing postponed, and implied that it was canceling altogether, a visit to Ukraine by Politburo and State Council... MORE

President Yeltsin's former security chief, General Aleksandr Korzhakov, plans to write a book giving "concrete information about concrete people." An interview with Korzhakov, who was unceremoniously sacked from his post as Yeltsin's chief bodyguard at the end of June, appears in the latest issue of... MORE