Vladimir Lukin, leading member of Yabloko, said yesterday that negotiations are going on between three presidential hopefuls -- Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky, ophthalmologist Svyatoslav Fedorov, and retired Lt. General Aleksandr Lebed -- over an electoral coalition that would unite the three behind a single candidate.... MORE

Following a telephone conversation yesterday with his Syrian counterpart, Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov said that Moscow and Damascus were united in their condemnation of Israel's military operations in Lebanon. According to Russian TV, Primakov described the Israeli actions as "inadmissible, insofar as they undermine... MORE

Russia's Communist-dominated Duma has approved a draft land code that outlaws the free sale of agricultural land by anyone other than the state. The bill, adopted yesterday in the second reading, is part of an ongoing battle between President Yeltsin, who in March issued a... MORE

Moscow has sent a diplomatic note to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry that protests the planned demolition of a monument to the Soviet Red Army in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv. Moscow claims that the decision, taken by local leaders in Plovdiv, violates a 1992 cooperation... MORE

Moldovan presidential advisors told a briefing yesterday that Russian president Boris Yeltsin's special envoy to the Transdniester settlement negotiations, Yuri Karlov, proposed a settlement plan last week. It apparently goes beyond the far-reaching devolution of powers agreed on by Chisinau with OSCE blessing and makes... MORE

The Russian Duma yesterday issued a non-binding appeal urging Boris Yeltsin to lobby the UN for a phased easing of international sanctions against Libya. (Itar-Tass, April 17) In fact, the resolution, which was proposed by ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, seems fully consistent with current Kremlin policy.... MORE

Russia's ambassador to Hungary threatened yesterday that Moscow would take military countermeasures should Hungary join NATO, the official Hungarian news agency reported. But the ambassador later would not specify the measures to which he had referred, and said that Moscow had not actually formulated them... MORE

. A joint declaration published following talks in Tokyo between the Japanese and U.S. presidents expressed support for Russian reforms, which were described as a contributing factor to regional and global stability. The declaration also urged "full normalization of Russo-Japanese relations on the basis of... MORE

Russia's LukOil company president Vagit Alekperov said yesterday that the California-based Chevron oil company has agreed to sell LukOil a 10 percent stake in the Tengiz-Chevron project in Kazakhstan, but that Lukoil will seek more. The government of Kazakhstan for its part recently announced that... MORE

Russian authorities announced yesterday that Azerbaijan's former defense minister Rahim Gaziev has been extradited to Azerbaijan. Arrested by the Moscow city Internal Affairs Department April 14, Gaziev was flown to Baku yesterday under escort of Azerbaijani law enforcement officials. Azerbaijan's former Communist party first secretary... MORE