In a Swedish press interview published this morning, Chechen president Djohar Dudaev declared himself prepared to accept Russian president Boris Yeltsin's offer of mediated talks, but also proposed direct talks with Yeltsin. Dudaev pointed out that mediators would lack the powers to ensure actual observance... MORE

U.S. officials, speaking after the collapse of talks in Vienna April 2-3, have provided a few more details on the impasse that stymied efforts to create a new post-COCOM arms export control regime. (See Monitor, April 5) They say that Moscow reneged at the last... MORE

Talks yesterday between Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy and his Russian counterpart, Yevgeny Primakov, revealed the expected differences on NATO enlargement, but Primakov did accept an invitation to visit Canada this summer for the signing of a treaty creating an Arctic Circle cooperation council. Primakov... MORE

A Russian government delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Ignatenko is scheduled to depart today for Pyongyang in order to participate in the first session of a bilateral commission on trade and cooperation scheduled for April 10-12. Russian deputy foreign minister Aleksandr Panov is... MORE

The International Monetary Fund has canceled a $1.6 billion loan to Ukraine and sent an emergency mission to Kiev to begin negotiations over a new program, the Financial Times reports today. (Financial Times, April 9) The IMF was reacting to news that the Ukrainian government... MORE

While Moscow chose not to comment on its specific contents, a deputy foreign minister confirmed yesterday that he had received the Bulgarian ambassador and had been handed a note in connection with Boris Yeltsin's recent remarks on Bulgaria. (Interfax, March 29) The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry... MORE

Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry has reaffirmed the country's independence in a statement reacting to the March 29 Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan agreement on "deeper integration" and the April 2 formation of a Russia-Belarus SSR. The statement stressed that Turkmenistan regards the CIS as a multi-optional consultative organization; stays out... MORE

President Mircea Snegur sent and made public Saturday April 6 an ultimatum-like letter to Prime Minister Andrei Sangheli, demanding that Sangheli initiate the dismissal of defense minister Lt. General Pavel Creanga. The letter gave the prime minister until today to submit a nomination for defense... MORE

Belarusian first deputy foreign minister Valery Tsepkalo warned April 5 that Minsk might suspend the removal to Russia of strategic nuclear missiles on Belarusian territory if Poland, the Czech Republic, or Hungary -- after admission to NATO -- were to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin's March 29 statement suggesting that Bulgaria might be interested in joining a Russian-led political union continues to cause political reverberations in Sofia. Bulgaria's foreign minister told reporters April 5 that Sofia would lodge an official protest in Moscow with the Russian... MORE