Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov will visit Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela May 19-25. Declaring that "Russia, as a great state, does not leave Latin America and has never intended to withdraw from there," a ministry spokesman said that the main purpose of the visit is... MORE

There is a real danger that Russia may develop into a police state. This was the conclusion of a conference held in Moscow May 11-13 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Moscow Helsinki monitoring group, created in 1976 to monitor Soviet compliance with the... MORE

If incumbent President Boris Yeltsin faces Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov in the second round of Russia's presidential elections, Yeltsin will get 45 percent of the vote and Zyuganov 37 percent. This is one of the findings of an opinion poll conducted April 26-May 5 by... MORE

Aleksei Podberezkin, deputy chairman of the Duma International Affairs Committee, warned yesterday that NATO enlargement would compel Russia to rethink its commitment to several international arms control agreements. Podberezkin, who is also an informal foreign policy advisor to Communist presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov (see Monitor,... MORE

The EU approved May 12 an "action plan" aimed at promoting economic and political reform in Russia. It pledges the EU to step up efforts to develop trade links and economic cooperation with Moscow, promises to aid Moscow in modernizing production and manufacturing, and commits... MORE

Ministers from 27 European countries, meeting last week in England under the auspices of the Western European Union (WEU), emerged convinced of the need to involve Russia and Ukraine in Europe's security architecture but unsure of what form those relationships should take. British foreign secretary... MORE

Similar issues were considered in a newspaper essay published by the foreign policy spokesman for German chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats. Rudolf Seiters suggested May 9 that Eastern European democracies be granted partial European Union membership in 1997 and that some be admitted into NATO... MORE

Defense ministers Pavel Grachev and Leanid Maltseu and the collegiums (top hierarchy) of the Russian and Belarusian Defense Ministries conferred yesterday in Moscow on strengthening cooperation. They signed a total of 10 documents on developing a joint defense and regional security concept and policy, joint... MORE

Lech Walesa's successor as chairman of Polish Solidarity, Marian Krzaklewski, and three members of his party were arrested by security police in Minsk yesterday and were ordered out of Belarus after meeting with representatives of trade unions banned by a presidential decree. The Polish Foreign... MORE

For the third consecutive day yesterday thousands rallied in Leninabad region's capital Khojent, Tajikistan's second-largest city, to protest against the policies of the Dushanbe government. Prime Minister Yahye Azimov and internal affairs minister Saidamir Zukhurov, who rushed to the scene, agreed under pressure to satisfy... MORE