Prime Ministers Tiit Vahi of Estonia, Andris Skele of Latvia, and Mindaugas Stankevicius of Lithuania signed yesterday in Vilnius an agreement on free agricultural trade among their countries. The agreement lifts import and export duties and quantitative quotas on all farm and fish products certified... MORE

Tajik Defense Ministry officials said yesterday that their troops are advancing in Tavildara district, having forced the opposition to withdraw "with big losses" from Tavildara town and surrounding villages. The officials credited the unit of Colonel Mahmud Khudoberdiev -- leader of last year's anti-government mutiny... MORE

Addressing a conference on international relations in Moscow June 14, Russian deputy foreign minister Aleksandr Panov criticized those Russian foreign policy analysts who, in his words, see confrontation between Russia and China as inevitable. The comment suggested that some in Russia have misgivings about increasingly... MORE

While U.S. political leaders were examining worst case scenarios, the military leadership was speaking in more optimistic terms of future cooperation with Russia. Defense Secretary William Perry, just back from NATO talks in Brussels, said June 16 that military cooperation in three key areas would... MORE

Moscow continued its policy of trying to force NATO to choose between enlargement and cooperation with Russia during talks between Russian defense minister Pavel Grachev and NATO defense chiefs in Brussels June 14. On the positive side, the two sides "essentially agreed to build on... MORE

During a press briefing June 14 and a TV interview two days later, the chief architect of the Clinton administration's Russia policy said that Washington would do whatever "is necessary to defend" American interests if Russia turns away from the democratic path following presidential elections... MORE

With 82 percent of the cast ballots counted by 09:00 Moscow time (05:00 GMT) on June 17, Russia's Central Election Commission said that President Boris Yeltsin led the field of candidates with 35.02 percent of the vote, followed by Communist party candidate Gennady Zyuganov with... MORE

The OSCE delegation, which accounted for approximately one half of the approximately 1,100 international observers accredited to the first round of the voting, gave it a relatively clean bill of health this morning. OSCE delegation chief Andras Barsoni of Hungary issued a preliminary assessment describing... MORE

Top Russian officials, including Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and leaders of the delegation to armistice talks, said over the weekend that the Kremlin was in constant contact with the Chechen insurgent leadership, and that the latter had decided to allow the June 16 elections to... MORE

At Georgia's request, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has agreed that Georgia's five-member delegation to the Assembly will henceforth include ex officio a representative of Abkhazia designated by Tbilisi. Tamaz Nadeirashvili, chairman of the rump Abkhaz parliament loyal to Georgia and operating... MORE