Chechen president Djohar Dudaev yesterday called for accelerating the start of mediated political negotiations with Russia, naming Turkey as a possible mediator in addition to those previously suggested. Upon returning from Chechnya yesterday, Rafael Hakimov, advisor to Tatarstan president and potential mediator Mintimer Shaimiev, reported... MORE

Two Russian battalions are being relocated from Chechnya today as the first move in the Russian command's plan, announced April 13, to reduce forces stationed there. The first stage, tentatively scheduled through June 5 -- provided the Chechen resistance stops fighting -- involves the relocation... MORE

The presidents of Russia and France, Boris Yeltsin and Jacques Chirac, who are to cochair the April 19-20 G-7 nuclear security summit, spoke by phone yesterday for 30 minutes regarding preparations for the event. Agreement at the expert level on four documents, including a "declaration... MORE

Implicitly criticizing U.S. diplomacy on the Korean peninsula, which has left Moscow standing on the sidelines, a Russian deputy foreign minister yesterday said that Moscow had foreseen the emergence of the latest tensions there. Aleksandr Panov repeated Moscow's call for the convening of a multilateral... MORE

Tajik president Imomali Rahmonov has issued a decree on urgent measures against drug trafficking. On the surface, his move is a response to a purported recent growth in drug smuggling into Tajikistan, the transit of drugs via Tajikistan en route to Europe, as well as... MORE

Former U.S. secretary of state James Baker, honorary chairman of the U.S.-Kazakhstan Business Cooperation Council, and Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev opened April 12 a Council roundtable in Almaty. The conferees announced that U.S. investment in Kazakhstan has grown to an impressive $1.5 billion in the... MORE

Azerbaijan's former Communist party leader and president of the republic, Ayaz Mutalibov and former defense minister Rahim Gaziev were arrested over the weekend by the Moscow city internal affairs department on as yet unspecified charges. A group of Azerbaijani law enforcement officials flew to Moscow... MORE

The Indian government has decided to purchase from Russia five squadrons of two-seat multipurpose Su-30MK fighters for its air force, an Indian newspaper reported April 14. The deal, described as the largest purchase of a single weapons system ever by India, was estimated at $1.8... MORE

As it reconvenes tomorrow after the Easter break, the Moldovan parliament faces four major challenges by President Mircea Snegur to the constitution and existing legislation: 1) Having allowed defense minister Pavel Creanga's reinstatement after the Constitutional Court ruled his removal by Snegur unconstitutional, the president... MORE

The chief of the Russian state arms trading company Rosvooruzheniye said April 12 that Russia was steadily increasing its arms sales and was looking to reach annual revenues of $10-12 billion. Aleksandr Kotelkin pointed especially to sales of Russian military aircraft, which he said would... MORE