The trial in Georgia of the two Pachulia brothers, well known Abkhaz fighters accused of ethnic cleansing crimes, failed to begin yesterday as scheduled. Officials said that Abkhazia forced the postponement by seizing 21 Georgian civilians in Gali district as hostages. The number is twice... MORE

Widely differing interpretations are circulating in Moscow over yesterday's dramatic events in Moscow, which saw President Boris Yeltsin sack three of his closest aides. For public consumption, the events were presented by Yeltsin campaign organizer Anatoly Chubais as a titanic struggle between the forces of... MORE

Yeltsin's Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov sought to capitalize on the turmoil of the past week by warning that a pro-Western "fifth column" is active in Russia and is threatening the motherland. Russia was sliding into civil war, Zyuganov's statement warned, and a "decrepit" President Yeltsin... MORE

Chechen fighters this morning shot down a Russian Federal Security Service helicopter overflying their positions, killing one and wounding seven. The resistance leadership appealed to OSCE mediator Tim Guldimann to ask the Russian command to "stop provocations aimed at resuming hostilities" and to observe the... MORE

Russian electoral officials have set Wednesday, July 3 for the second round of the presidential elections between incumbent President Boris Yeltsin and Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov. (Reuters, June 20) The day has been declared a public holiday. A weekday has been chosen instead of the... MORE

Russia's Central Election Commission has published the final figures for the first round of voting on June 16. The 69.8 percent turnout among Russia's 108.5 million voters was lower than predicted. Yeltsin won a total of 26.6 million votes (35.3 percent) while Zyuganov got 24.2... MORE

The Russian president has appointed Yuri Krapivin, head of Russia's Federal Bodyguard Service, to be his acting personal security chief in place Aleksandr Korzhakov, who was sacked yesterday. Nikolai Kovalev, deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), was named its new acting head, replacing... MORE

Despite denials by Russia's Defense Ministry and the principals involved, Aleksandr Lebed yesterday claimed that the existence of a military conspiracy, aimed at pressuring President Boris Yeltsin into retaining recently deposed defense minister Pavel Grachev, had been confirmed. Lebed provided no details, but repeated that... MORE

In the course of a two-day Armenian-Greek summit meeting in Athens, defense ministers Vazgen Sarksian and Gerasimos Arsenis signed an agreement on military cooperation between the two countries. The agreement is said to envisage deliveries of military equipment, personnel training, and exchanges of information and... MORE

In Dushanbe yesterday, "the second republican Muslim congress" unanimously elected Amanullo Negmatzoda to the position of Mufti (highest-ranking cleric) of Muslims in Tajikistan. No other candidacy was considered. The 55 years old cleric had served until now as khatib (superior) of a mosque in the... MORE