A military space forces official said yesterday that Russia had postponed until July 25 a launch that would have carried food, fuel, and scientific equipment to the Russian space station Mir. The decision was the latest in a series of disappointments for Russia's space program,... MORE

Russian paratroopers serving with the peace implementation force in Bosnia will not participate in the search for, or the arrest of, Bosnian Serb leaders wanted by the international community for war crimes, Russian Airborne Forces commander Col. General Yevgeny Podkolzin said yesterday. (Interfax, July 22)... MORE

A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said yesterday that Moscow could not be "indifferent" to a NATO naval exercise hosted this week by Romania and staged in the Black Sea. Although the Russian fleet has not been put on alert status, the spokesman said, its warships... MORE

Vitali Budko, leader of the Russian Coal Workers' Union, has warned that the nonpayments crisis -- which has already been blamed for the electricity outages that hit homes and factories in Russia's Far East last week -- could provoke a nationwide miners' strike later in... MORE

The Russian border troops command yesterday charged in a statement that the opposition is concentrating forces in several sectors on the Afghan side of the border, allegedly planning to introduce them into Tajikistan in violation of the ceasefire just signed. Warning that it would use... MORE

Uzbek president Islam Karimov and South Korean "prime minister for political affairs" Kim Tok Leng inaugurated on July 19 the commissioning of the UzDaewoo automobile plant in Asaka, Andijan region, Uzbekistan. A parity joint venture built in less than two years at a cost of... MORE

The mandate of Russian "peacekeeping" forces in Abkhazia expired July 19 as Tbilisi withheld consent to its renewal. On the same day Georgia's Security Council, chaired by President Eduard Shevardnadze, formulated the following conditions for renewal of the mandate: deploying the troops throughout Abkhazia, not... MORE

At the inter-Tajik talks in Ashgabat, government and opposition delegations signed on July 19 a statement instituting a ceasefire inside Tajikistan and on the Afghan-Tajik border for the period July 20 through December 31, 1996. Each side will keep its forces on the positions held... MORE

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma has ordered the government to draft by August 15 a plan to create an anti-terrorism center, and to submit by October 1 a comprehensive program for combating terrorism, organized crime, corruption among state officials, and the shadow economy. The program also... MORE

The Russian Central Bank has announced new measures to allow foreign investors freer access to Russia's high-yielding bond market. Under rules that will take effect on August 15, foreigners may open ruble accounts at specified Russian banks and purchase treasury bills at government auctions and... MORE