President Boris Yeltsin unveiled his election program yesterday while campaigning in the Urals city of Perm. (BBC, Western agencies, Financial Times, May 31) The program has something for everyone, promising to fight crime, protect the needy and defend domestic producers, while at the time modernizing... MORE

A Russian nuclear energy official said yesterday that Moscow and Beijing could sign a contract for the construction of a nuclear power plant in China's Liaoning province by the end of this year. The two sides reportedly are making progress in arranging financing for the... MORE

Presidents Lennart Meri of Estonia, Guntis Ulmanis of Latvia, and Algirdas Brazauskas of Lithuania yesterday addressed a joint letter to U.S. president Bill Clinton, requesting U.S. support for the three Baltic states' early accession to NATO. Baltic membership of the alliance is necessary for protecting... MORE

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Chairman Frank Swalen and Secretary-General Spencer Oliver conferred with Uzbek president Islam Karimov yesterday in Tashkent and told a briefing afterward that they and Karimov were "in full agreement on security issues, both international and regional." Swalen and Oliver endorsed Karimov's initiative... MORE

German chancellor Helmut Kohl, long one of Boris Yeltsin's most steadfast Western backers, reiterated yesterday his support for the Russian president's reelection bid. Kohl reportedly characterized Yeltsin as a "reliable partner" who had fulfilled all Moscow's promises in withdrawing Russian troops from former East Germany.... MORE

A group of Russian military specialists, scheduled to depart for the United States tomorrow, is reported to be ready for a five-day Russian-U.S. missile defense exercise at the Falcon Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. The computer war game aims to simulate a conflict situation... MORE

Russia found itself isolated in the UN Security Council yesterday as its objections were ignored and the mandate for UN troops in Macedonia was extended another six months. The vote was 14-0, with Russia abstaining. Moscow objected that the mission, comprised mainly of U.S. troops,... MORE

Russian forces and the Chechen resistance are due to cease-fire at 00:00 hours tonight under the Moscow agreement signed May 27. A joint commission to monitor the armistice and facilitate an all-for-all exchange of prisoners is due to convene tomorrow in Dagestan's capital Makhachkala. (Russian... MORE

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Demurin told a briefing yesterday that the latest round of Russian-Estonian border talks failed mainly because the Russian side refused to include in the draft agreement a reference to the continuing validity of the 1920 peace treaty in which Russia... MORE

Interviewed in yesterday's issue of the Russian Defense Ministry daily, Georgian defense minister Lt. General Vardiko Nadibaidze said that "Russian bases in Georgia must be. We shall not build our full-fledged army without Russian military bases over the next two decades. Besides, our state interests... MORE