Belarus parliament chairman Semyon Sharetsky has petitioned the Constitutional Court for a ruling on President Aleksandr Lukashenko's recent decree making the parliament's newspaper Narodnaya gazeta subordinate to the executive branch. Sharetsky pointed out that the move contravenes the constitutional separation of powers as well as... MORE

Today's government newspaper Moldova Suverana reports that General Prosecutor's Office representatives came to the editorial office to demand disclosure of the sources of recent stories on President Mircea Snegur's effort to establish personal control over the army. The newspaper has published Snegur's six recent orders... MORE

President Yeltsin's economic adviser Aleksandr Livshits says the new Russian government will not see controlling inflation as an end in itself and will shift its priorities to concentrate on investment and growth. Outlining the government's new economic strategy at a press conference yesterday, Livshits praised... MORE

The knowledgeable journalist Vitaly Tretyakov is predicting that Pavel Borodin will soon replace the hawkish Nikolai Yegorov as head of Yeltsin's presidential administration. (Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 6) French Proposal for Alternative to NATO Enlargement.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing, former French president and currently chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs committee, called yesterday for Paris to work for reconsideration of NATO's planned enlargement. Giscard d'Estaing said that enlargement would isolate and antagonize Russia, and he called instead for the Western alliance... MORE

A Japanese destroyer will participate in ceremonies, set for the end of July in Vladivostok, marking the 300th anniversary of the Russian navy, sources in Tokyo reported yesterday. The ship will also take part in joint exercises with Russian naval vessels. The visit, which is... MORE

Russian Foreign Ministry chief spokesman Grigory Karasin yesterday charged that "the difficulties of the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic states persist and are in some respects actually worsening." Karasin claimed that "mass-scale and gross violations of human rights, particularly in Estonia and Latvia heighten tensions... MORE

Boris Yeltsin was officially declared the winner of the Russian presidential election when the final results of the second round of voting were published yesterday. Central Election Commission chairman Nikolai Ryabov said Yeltsin's victory was "honest, democratic and fair." Yeltsin won 53.8 percent of the... MORE

. Security Council secretary Aleksandr Lebed is reported to have expressed concern about the possibility of a serious economic crisis in the fall and to have asked a meeting of economists and bankers July 9 to recommend a candidate for the post of deputy secretary... MORE

Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze told the country on radio yesterday that Tbilisi hopes to obtain a UN Security Council resolution on the principles of settling the Abkhazia conflict. Georgia is seeking Russian support for such a resolution at the Security Council's July 12 meeting, Shevardnadze... MORE