President Boris Yeltsin is visiting Russia's southern provinces -- Stavropol and Krasnodar krais, commonly referred to as the "Russia's breadbasket." Continuing his efforts to woo the electorate, he yesterday announced that the minimum monthly pension will more than double as of May 1, and that... MORE

Duma deputy Galina Starovoitova yesterday submitted the necessary one million signatures to apply for registration as a candidate in June's presidential election. Starovoitova, a founder-member of the Democratic Russia movement who has championed the interests of national minorities in Russia and the former Soviet Union,... MORE

Ramazan Abdulatipov, a deputy to the Russian Duma who is Dagestani by origin, has warned that the increasing involvement of Cossack units in Chechnya could provoke a "religious-ethnic war in the Caucasus." (Interfax, April 15) He said he would appeal to President Yeltsin to order... MORE

Days after two top Russian officials reiterated Moscow's intention to defy Washington and proceed with the construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran (see Monitor, April 12), an advisor to Boris Yeltsin has warned against providing nuclear technology to a country only 200 miles... MORE

Israel's ambassador to Russia yesterday objected to statements made by Russia's Foreign Ministry last week that criticized recent Israeli military attacks on Lebanon as a violation of that country's sovereignty and as a course of action likely to "hamper international efforts to broker Middle East... MORE

Preliminary results in the local elections held April 14 in Sverdlovsk oblast showed the "Urals Renewal" movement, which is led by oblast Governor Eduard Rossel, in the lead with 36.5 percent of the vote for the lower chamber of the region's new bicameral legislative assembly.... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin has issued a decree that increases government control over the privatization of enterprises in Russia's military-industrial complex, a Russian news agency reported yesterday. The action, which is aimed at "ensuring effective state control" over defense privatization, was also said to be... MORE

Prime Ministers Andris Skele of Latvia and Tiit Vahi of Estonia met in Vilnius and agreed on a temporary compromise in the looming conflict over maritime border demarcation and fishing rights in the Gulf of Riga. Under the arrangement, valid until August 1, Latvia in... MORE

In a letter to Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, made public in Kiev over the weekend, European Commission Chairman Jacques Santer welcomed Ukraine's commitment to economic reform and its advances in macroeconomic stabilization, privatization, and openness to foreign investment. (The European Commission is the executive arm... MORE

The Chairman of Russia's State Customs Committee, Anatoly Kruglov, said yesterday that Russia and China plan to create a joint free economic zone at an unspecified site along their mutual border. Kruglov said that China had already created the proper conditions for the project, but... MORE