Russian president Boris Yeltsin signed a decree August 16 on measures to control the export of equipment, materials, and technologies used in missile manufacture. The decree, to come into effect three months after its promulgation, is aimed at bringing Russia into conformity with its international... MORE

In the third of a series of joint exercises between Russia's Pacific Fleet and the U.S. 7th Fleet, a contingent of U.S. sailors and Marines traveled to Vladivostok last week for a day of maneuvers aimed at improving coordination in natural disaster relief operations. The... MORE

Russian ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky arrived in Baghdad yesterday for a visit that he said was aimed at boosting "friendly relations between the Russian and Iraqi peoples and to discuss steps which would end the embargo imposed on Iraq." Zhirinovsky was quoted as describing the UN... MORE

Russian coal miners' leaders have reacted positively to Finance Ministry assurances that the Russian government is doing everything possible to speed up payment of wage arrears. Miners' leaders are to decide on Friday, August 23, whether or not to call a nationwide strike of coal... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin's chief spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky told a briefing yesterday that Yeltsin has ordered his chief security official Aleksandr Lebed in writing to "reestablish the legal order in Grozny as it existed on August 5," relieve remaining Russian positions surrounded in Grozny, and... MORE

Russia's chief security official and presidential plenipotentiary for Chechnya, Aleksandr Lebed, flew to Grozny today to stop Lt. General Konstantin Pulikovsky from attacking Grozny. Lebed was quoted this morning as saying that Pulikovsky would have to give up the command. Pulikovsky for his part said... MORE

A car bomb exploded in Makhachkala on August 19, killing Hamid Hamidov, finance minister of the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, which borders on Chechnya. (Itar-Tass, Reuters, August 20) Yeltsin Leaves Moscow for Two-Day Break.

President Yeltsin has left Moscow to spend two days in the city of Valdai, about 350 km (220 miles) northwest of the capital, Yeltsin's press spokesman revealed on August 20. Yeltsin in expected back in Moscow later in the week for scheduled meetings with government... MORE

Tajik United Opposition deputy chairman Akbar Turanjozoda said at the weekend that a UTO detachment had retaken Tavildara on August 15. UN special envoy Dietrich Merrem in turn said yesterday that the Tajik government had informed him that the opposition had advanced in Tavildara district,... MORE

Latvian prime minister Andris Skele telephoned his reappointed Russian counterpart Viktor Chernomyrdin August 16 to express Latvia's interest in improving relations with Russia, particularly in the economic sphere. Chernomyrdin said that progress in bilateral relations "largely depended, as previously, on the situation of Russians in... MORE