Latest Monitor Articles
RUSSIAN, U.S. PRESIDENTS CHAT.
During a forty-minute telephone conversation yesterday, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin reportedly discussed the upcoming nuclear safety summit in Moscow, differences over the CFE Treaty, and the applicability of the ABM Treaty to theater missile defense systems, a White House spokesman said. He suggested that... MORE
TAJIKISTAN ESTABLISHES PRESIDENTIAL POWER ORGAN.
President Imomali Rahmonov has approved a statute on the operation of a National Security Council, originally ordered into existence in January. Chaired by the president and comprised of the key ministers, including those of the "power" ministries, the Council is empowered to take decisions and... MORE
MOLDOVAN DEMOCRACY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.
Moldovan prime minister Andrei Sangheli yesterday resisted President Mircea Snegur's April 6 ultimatum-like demand to officially dismiss defense minister Pavel Creanga and submit within 48 hours a nomination for Snegur's approval. Sangheli replied that Snegur's "ultimatum ignores the Constitutional Court's verdict" of April 4, which... MORE
MOSCOW TRYING OUT POLICY OF DIFFERENTIATION.
Interviewed in a Vilnius daily, Russian Duma Chairman Gennady Seleznev warned that Russia's relations with the Baltic states will depend on their attitude toward NATO. Regarding other outstanding issues, Seleznev said that Russia has "no unsolvable problems" with Lithuania; objected to "discrimination against Russians" in... MORE
DUMA FAILS TO PASS LEGISLATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONER.
The Russian Communist party suffered an unusual parliamentary defeat last week when the Duma refused to adopt in the third reading a Communist-sponsored bill setting up a human rights commissioner. (Interfax, April 3; Izvestiya, April 4) The bill was twice put to the vote, but... MORE
REGISTRATION FEES FOR RESIDENCE RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
The Russian Constitutional Court ruled April 4 that all residency restrictions introduced by local authorities are unconstitutional and must be immediately abolished. (Interfax, April 4) The ruling came in response to a challenge by Veronika Kutsyllo, a Russian journalist who moved from Kazakhstan to work... MORE
YELTSIN WOOS ELDERLY VOTERS.
The accepted wisdom is that a candidate will need to win a minimum of 43 million votes to make it into the second round of the presidential election, and the Communist candidate is believed to have a strong advantage since most of Russia's 37 million... MORE
THE ARMY AND THE ELECTION.
Russia's military leadership took two steps yesterday ostensibly aimed at keeping the army out of the country's intensifying presidential election campaign. In the first, the chief of the General Staff informed commanders that campaigning on military bases is banned by law, and he ordered that... MORE
MORE CHECHNYAS?
The commander in chief of the Russian Air Force, Col. General Pyotr Deinekin, was quoted April 6 as saying that Russia requires the creation of special reconnaissance-and-strike groups -- composed of spy planes, assault aircraft, bombers and fighter-bombers -- in order to deal more effectively... MORE
TURKMENISTAN INVITED TO JOIN NATO PROGRAM.
U.S. ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter yesterday invited the leaders of Turkmenistan to choose from among the various forms of cooperation available under the NATO Partnership for Peace program. Following talks with top officials in Ashgabat, Hunter expressed hope that Turkmenistan would submit its proposals... MORE