Moscow appears divided on whether or not to abide by the armistice agreement's key provision which cancels the June 16 election to a Chechen collaborationist legislature. The Moscow-installed Grozny authorities announced yesterday that, despite the agreement, they would hold the election as originally scheduled. Russian... MORE

A bomb exploded Tuesday evening in a Moscow metro car, killing four people and injuring at least 12. Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov called it a "barbaric" act intended to create chaos and disrupt next Sunday's presidential and mayoral elections. (BBC, June 11 & 12) In... MORE

Security is being tightened up in all Russia's major cities, with police being ordered to clear the streets of beggars and homeless people. In Moscow, some 25,000 such people are reported to have already been moved to a former children's summer camp designated specially for... MORE

Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov denies reports that he has offered up to five portfolios to ultranationalist candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky in exchange for his support in the second round of balloting. (Itar-Tass, June 11) The speculation was prompted by Zhirinovsky himself, who told a television... MORE

Secretary General of the Council of Europe Peter Leuprecht yesterday criticized Russia and Ukraine for their continued use of the death penalty despite their Council commitments. Leuprecht complained of contradictory signals from Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who he said has decreed that less use be... MORE

The commander of Latvia's border troops, Leonids Lasmanis, was dismissed yesterday by the country's defense minister and the commander in chief of the armed forces. President Guntis Ulmanis had publicly urged the measure following a theft of automatic rifles from a border guard unit last... MORE

Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry yesterday followed Kazakhstan (see Monitor, June 11) in protesting against last week's nuclear weapons test conducted by China in the Xinjiang region. Kyrgyzstan urged China to adhere to international curbs on nuclear weapons tests, as Beijing itself has promised to do starting... MORE

Officials of the U.S. Defense Department and Kazakhstan's Defense and Science Ministries signed yesterday in Almaty documents on supplementary allocations of U.S. funds to support Kazakhstan's denuclearization programs. Kazakhstan will receive $40 million in addition to the $123 million already committed by the U.S. under... MORE

Yesterday in Ankara, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed an agreement on military cooperation. The pact is said to include technical assistance and training, as well as other programs. The Azerbaijani delegates termed the agreement an "historic milestone" for the country and a step toward developing its... MORE

Azerbaijan's national security minister Namig Abbasov said yesterday that he and the director of Russia's External Intelligence Service, Vyacheslav Trubnikov have reached an unwritten "gentlemen's agreement" to cooperate on certain intelligence matters. According to Abbasov, the agreement envisages coordination of intelligence gathering on international terrorism,... MORE