Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday denied any knowledge of attempts by China to purchase Russian long-range missile technology. U.S. defense secretary William Perry said May 21 that Washington had warned Russia, Ukraine, and China against any such transaction after receiving information that Beijing seeks to purchase... MORE

The Russian Duma adopted a new land code May 22 in the bill's third and final reading. Agriculture Minister Viktor Khlystun deplored the new legislation, which bans the free sale of agricultural land, saying it would deny farmers the possibility of disposing freely of plots... MORE

The Russian Communist party's second-in-command, Valentin Kuptsov has complained that reports of Gennady Zyuganov's policies in the Russian media include deliberate falsifications. Kuptsov addressed a press conference May 21 with Tatyana Koryagina, a Duma deputy who this week was revealed as the coordinator of Gennady... MORE

The Russian command for the North Caucasus acknowledged yesterday that Russian troops lost some 40 killed and 48 wounded as a result of an overnight and early morning counterattack staged by Chechen fighters defending Bamut. The command upped the Russian casualty toll from an initial... MORE

Russian government forecasters say spring sowing is going well and that between 75 and 78 million tons of grain should be harvested in 1996. Agriculture Minister Viktor Khlystun said this meant Russia would not have to return to centralized grain imports this year, especially since... MORE

Newly named Defense Industry Minister Zinovy Pak said May 21 that the 1996 Russian defense budget calls for munitions factories in the Far East to boost deliveries to the Russian armed forces by 30 percent and defense exports by 1,000 percent as compared to last... MORE

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says in an interview with the German weekly Stern that the West had agreed during negotiations on German unification that the NATO military alliance would not expand eastward. He also blamed the United States for spearheading the drive to enlarge... MORE

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin is paying an impromptu, one-day "working" visit to Kiev today to discuss the Black Sea Fleet dispute, the bilateral interstate treaty long overdue for signing, and a possible visit by Russian president Boris Yeltsin to Ukraine. Moscow surprised Ukraine's leaders... MORE

Russia and China combined to produce a UN. Security Council statement, made public yesterday, accusing the Tajik opposition of deliberately violating the cease-fire in the recent operation in which it captured Tavildara. The statement also calls for an unconditional cease-fire for the duration of the... MORE

Russia's official news agency announced this morning that President Boris Yeltsin has replaced Andrei Kozyrev, his special envoy to Tajikistan, with Yevgeny Mikhailov. (Itar-Tass, May 23) The step completes former foreign minister Kozyrev's political disgrace. It also follows a leaked letter to Yeltsin from Tajik... MORE