A Presidential Council member offered a markedly different analysis of Russian policy vis-a-vis NATO expansion in a May 15 Russian daily. Andranik Migranyan suggested that Moscow had been too flexible in its dealings with the Western alliance and that its willingness to accommodate the West... MORE

CIS heads of state, ending a one-day summit in Moscow today, unanimously endorsed Yeltsin's reelection bid. A motion in support of Russia's democratic reforms, submitted by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, topped the summit agenda. Noting that Russia "has always been and remains the pivot of... MORE

The Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, amended a bill on local elections yesterday by deleting a clause that would have required candidates for election to local government bodies to pass an examination in Estonian if they had not been educated in that language. The bill, first... MORE

In the presence of Russian and Georgian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Eduard Shevardnadze, a memorandum on security and confidence-building measures in the South Ossetian conflict zone was signed yesterday in the Kremlin. Georgian foreign minister Irakli Menagarishvili and South Ossetian Supreme Soviet chairman Lyudvig Chibirov,... MORE

Fighting spread yesterday as government troops sought to halt opposition gains in the district of Tajikabad, located in the strategic corridor linking the western and eastern parts of the country. A delegation of the Russian Defense Ministry headed by Lt. General Aleksandr Sokolov, deputy commander... MORE

Please note that The Monitor issues of 13-16 May 1996 were incorrectly numbered. The issues should have been numbered as Vol. II, Nos. 94-97, respectively. We apologize for the oversight. Click here to return to the previous page. Click here to return to the home... MORE

Russia's Federation Council yesterday approved the draft law "on defense." The law specifies the government's powers in the areas of defense and empowers it to determine procedures for allocating defense funding and determining the sources of that funding. A parliamentarian said that the law on... MORE

Russia's Federation Council yesterday approved a government bill which cancels the value-added tax on cotton fiber imports from non-CIS countries. Proponents of the act said that the measure will enable Russia to further reduce Uzbekistan's hitherto dominant but declining share in Russia's cotton fiber imports.... MORE

Russia joined the United States, Japan, the European Union, and five other nations as a full dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Philippine's president announced yesterday. China was elevated along with Russia to dialogue partner rank. The two nations will now... MORE

Russian defense minister Pavel Grachev will not attend an upcoming conference of Scandinavian defense ministers as planned, the Norwegian Defense Ministry reported yesterday. The ministry named first deputy defense minister Andrei Kokoshin as a possible replacement. Itar-Tass provided no explanation as to Grachev's change in... MORE