The Secretary General of NATO, Javier Solana, said in an interview in Madrid today that Russia's idea of NATO was rooted in the Cold War years of the 1950s. He advised Russia to wake up to the reality of the 1990s and realize that the... MORE

The presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan meet in Moscow today to sign an agreement strengthening the economic integration of their respective states. Specifics of the agreements, which also deal with social issues, were not available. Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev said the four countries... MORE

Serial production of vans began this week at the Uz-Daewoo automobile plant in Assak, Uzbekistan, a parity joint venture in which South Korea's Daewoo company has invested $200 million. The plant, with an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles, is licensed to produce two models of... MORE

The Russian

The Crimean parliament appealed yesterday to the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and the Ukrainian and Russian presidents and parliaments, asking that guarantees of Crimea's autonomous status should be included in the Ukrainian-Russian friendship treaty due to be signed by Presidents Yeltsin and Kuchma in... MORE

Presidential hopefuls Grigory Yavlinsky, Svyatoslav Fedorov, and Aleksandr Lebed have circulated a joint statement proposing a program for CIS integration as an alternative to the policies being proposed by the Yeltsin leadership and the Russian Communist party. The plan, which seems to take its inspiration... MORE

A Russian parliamentary delegation led by Duma speaker Gennady Seleznev was scolded in Sofia March 27 for the Duma's March 15 resolution denouncing the disbandment of the USSR. On the final day of a three-day visit, Bulgarian prime minister Zhan Videnov told the Russian parliamentarians... MORE

Russia's Constitutional Court yesterday declared unconstitutional actions that limit the choice of attorney by persons charged with revealing state secrets. Four persons had reportedly challenged Article 21 of the Russian law "On State Secrets," which allowed the government to limit choice of counsel in such... MORE

Stumping for votes in southern Siberia, Communist party leader and presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov gave radio listeners a brief outline of his foreign policy priorities. Zyuganov summed up Russian policy simply as "utmost openness to the West and the East, but with active support and... MORE

There was great surprise at the news that the State Property Committee (SPC), the Russian government agency set up for the express purpose of privatizing state property, had drafted a law on nationalization. (Segodnya, March 20 & 21; Izvestiya, March 23). It turns out that... MORE