An official spokesman of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) yesterday renewed allegations that Estonia's Defense League Kaitseliit, a component of the country's armed forces, has been in contact with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to supply it with arms. The allegations were as unsubstantiated as... MORE

The International Monetary Fund has approved an $867 million loan to Ukraine to support the government's 1996 reform programs. The loan will be disbursed in monthly installments on the basis of monthly monitoring of the government's fulfillment of program targets, as agreed with the IMF.... MORE

Turkish foreign minister Emre Gonensay will visit the United States May 19 and 20. His trip will mainly be devoted to mobilizing political and financial support for a pipeline to carry Caspian oil from Baku via Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean port Ceyhan, where it will... MORE

The Tajik resistance yesterday captured the district center Tavildara and added more villages to those it already controls in that area. Scores of government soldiers lost their lives and many more were captured, together with stocks of government arms and ammunition. Field commander Mirzo Zieyev... MORE

Former Polish leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski and several other Polish World War II veterans were awarded medals yesterday in a ceremony at the Russian embassy in Warsaw marking the 51st anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. Jaruzelski received an award named after Soviet wartime... MORE

A Russian first deputy foreign minister yesterday handed to Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic a message from Russian president Boris Yeltsin. The document reaffirmed Moscow's readiness to develop wide-ranging economic and political relations with the Yugoslav union of Serbia and Montenegro and its eagerness to participate... MORE

The chairman of the Duma Committee on Security, commenting yesterday on the British-Russian spy row (see News & Perspective section below), said that foreign intelligence services "are vigorously working all along Russian borders and within Russia." Viktor Ilyukhin, a Communist, also warned that the Soviet... MORE

Presidential candidate Mikhail Gorbachev was slapped in the face today in Volgograd by a woman said to be a supporter of the radical Working Russia movement. (Itar-Tass, UPI, May 9) This is the second time in as many weeks that the former Soviet president, whom... MORE

Day 3 of a British-Russian row over spying ended inconclusively yesterday as the two sides appeared to be negotiating a compromise that would avoid a rupture in relations. (See Monitor, May 7 & 8) In Moscow, Russia's Foreign Ministry and Federal Security Service (FSB) continued... MORE

The attempt to present the Russian electorate with a credible democratic alternative to the two heavyweight presidential candidates seems to have failed. Svyatoslav Fedorov told a press conference in Moscow yesterday that it is unlikely that he, Grigory Yavlinsky, and Aleksandr Lebed will form an... MORE