Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) announced May 17 that it had agreed to cooperate with Russia's Tupolev Company in the development of a hydrogen-powered aircraft that could reduce pollution and conserve oil supplies. The two also reportedly agreed to look into cooperation in the manufacture of... MORE

A Russian Foreign Ministry official said May 17 that Russia would consider providing North Korea with food aid if it were requested. But Pyongyang has made no such request this year, he said. Russia sent humanitarian to North Korea twice last year. (Itar-Tass, May 17)... MORE

Russia's foreign trade minister said May 17 that the Russian government would step in and terminate a crumbling oil-for-sugar trade deal with Cuba if the Russian company involved in the deal -- Alfa-Eco -- cannot resolve its differences with the Cuban side. He suggested that... MORE

Meeting in Moscow after the CIS summit, Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma agreed in principle that Ukraine would receive $ 450 million in compensation for nuclear warheads of ex-USSR tactical nuclear missiles shipped by Ukraine to Russia in 1992. The... MORE

Turkey's ambassador to Georgia, Tofik Okiauz said in a Georgian press interview over the weekend that if Georgia allows Russia to set up a military base near the Turkish border, Turkey will in turn build a military base near its border with Georgia "but not... MORE

Tajikistan's United Islamic Opposition today agreed to extending through August 26 the much violated cease-fire agreement, whose latest extension expires May 26. UTO also offered to release immediately 28 of the approximately 400 prisoners it holds. The opposition insists that Dushanbe lift the ban on... MORE

With less than a month to go before the Russian presidential election, Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky has told incumbent president Boris Yeltsin he will make

Yeltsin responded to

Latest opinion polls show Yeltsin now well ahead of Zyuganov with 32 percent of the vote in the first round to Zyuganov's 25 percent, with 9 percent going to Grigory Yavlinsky. (NTV, May 19) Evidently alarmed by the way the former front-runner Zyuganov is slipping... MORE

Gubernatorial elections took place yesterday in Russia's second city, St. Petersburg. Preliminary results indicate that the incumbent, Anatoly Sobchak, failed to win an outright majority and that a runoff election will have to be held at the beginning of June. Sobchak won just under 30... MORE