Turkmenistan confirmed yesterday that President Saparmurad Niazov has agreed in principle with Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze at their meeting in Tbilisi to cooperate in the construction of a pipeline to carry Turkmenistan's gas via Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey to European markets. Two variants are under... MORE

The government of Azerbaijan and Trans-World Metals are set to sign a contract under which the London-based firm will take over the management of the Ganja alumina plant for a ten-year period, as well as a controlling share of the plant's stock. Trans-World Metals is... MORE

Ukrainian prime minister Yevhen Marchuk announced yesterday in Kiev that the Russian-Ukrainian intergovernmental cooperation commission ("Chernomyrdin-Marchuk Commission") had, at its inaugural session in Moscow the preceding day, confirmed that Russian president Boris Yeltsin would pay his much-delayed official visit to Ukraine in early April and... MORE

The Ukrainian parliament has approved the draft Crimean constitution in the first reading. (Interfax, March 21) The move will help defuse tensions that arose last month when it became known that the draft Ukrainian constitution, which is also under consideration by parliament at this time,... MORE

The director of the CIA said yesterday that the failure to date of terrorists to steal significant amounts of weapons-grade material from the former USSR has been in large measure a matter of luck, and he recommended that the United States continue funding efforts to... MORE

Free Speech Defense Fund Chairman Aleksei Simonov asked Russia's General Prosecutor to protect the legally guaranteed right to information against the government's "total blockade" on information on the Chechnya war. "We don't know and may never know what is happening because journalists are barred until... MORE

Russian aviation and artillery yesterday attacked villages in Nozhay-Yurt, Nauria, and Urus-Martan districts situated in southeastern, northern, and central Chechnya, respectively. In western Chechnya, Russian forces continued bombing and shelling several towns and villages, but failed in their attempts to storm them. The Russian command... MORE

Following his own two days of talks with Russian leaders, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana conceded that the two sides were still far apart on NATO enlargement. It appeared that there had also been little progress made in defining the contours of Russia's own relationship... MORE

Russia's lower house will vote on a resolution censuring U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher for remarks critical of the Duma's March 15 vote denouncing the disbandment of the USSR, Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznev said yesterday. On March 19 Christopher called the resolution "highly irresponsible."... MORE

The Duma has refused to debate either the Federation Council's appeal to review its March 15 denunciation of the dissolution of the USSR, or a bill proposed by President Boris Yeltsin relating to the same topic, before its next plenary session scheduled for April 3.... MORE