Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday called upon Russian companies to purchase oil from Baghdad and to supply Iraq with humanitarian goods. The exhortation came in the wake of a recent UN decision permitting Iraq to sell $2 billion worth of oil, and was aimed at spurring... MORE

A Russian commentary observed yesterday while former Soviet ally North Korea will not be represented at ceremonies this week marking the 300th anniversary of the Russian fleet, former Cold War adversaries South Korea and Japan will send ships. The festivities, to be staged in the... MORE

Officers staffing the Russian Defense Ministry's central apparatus in Moscow were described yesterday as disheartened over the failure of recently-named defense minister Igor Rodionov to work for the speedy payment of their back wages. The officers have reportedly not been paid since May, but at... MORE

The number of reported cases of HIV infection has doubled in Russia over the past year and could reach 100,000 by the year 2000, according to the head of the Russian AIDS Center. Vadim Pokrovsky said twice as many people became infected with the HIV... MORE

Enterprise leaders in the Far Eastern city of Nakhodka have reportedly informed Russian Security Council secretary Aleksandr Lebed and Federal Border Service chief Andrei Nikolai that border forces units in the area have received no funding for food since January. The local leaders say that... MORE

President Yeltsin has assigned his new chief-of-staff, Anatoly Chubais, to organize the presidential inauguration ceremony, which is to take place in the Kremlin's Cathedral Square on August 9. Previously, that job was handled by the former chief-of-staff, the hawkish Nikolai Yegorov. (Itar-Tass, July 23) Russian... MORE

The U.S. House yesterday voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill making Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic eligible for more U.S. aid in order to accelerate their admission into NATO. The bill authorizes $60 million in military assistance to those three countries, which are described... MORE

A senior Russian naval officer implied yesterday that Moscow had little interest in participating in this week's "Cooperative Partner 96" NATO exercises because it had placed priority instead on naval maneuvers scheduled to begin August 16 in Bulgarian waters. The officer also corroborated a denial... MORE

President Yeltsin said yesterday that he would streamline, but not reshuffle, the Russian government. Speaking to the press after a 90-minute meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Yeltsin said "There will be changes in the new government -- not drastic ones but nevertheless significant, both... MORE

The Tajik government and opposition agreed July 21 in Ashgabat on an exchange of military prisoners and political detainees. The agreement, which ended the third stage of the fifth round of inter-Tajik talks, envisages the mutual release until August 20 of an equal number of... MORE