Officials for a Russian company building a floating nuclear power plant to provide cheap energy for remote regions in the Russian Far East claim that it will not constitute an environmental hazard. The $254 million project, to become operational in 2001, consists of two pressurized-water... MORE

President Yeltsin has already promised to set up a watchdog body to protect the Russian language. Now the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, has declared that he was so shocked by the number of "incomprehensible" foreign words in one of the documents prepared by the... MORE

Inflation in the week 5-11 March was 0.4 percent, the lowest since Russia launched its economic reforms in January 1992, the State Statistics Committee reported yesterday. If the present rate continues, March inflation is likely to be somewhere between 2.2 and 2.6 percent, compared to... MORE

President Yeltsin vowed again yesterday that the Russian government will shortly start supplying funds to the Russian regions to enable them to settle claims for back pay. (ORT, BBC World Service, March 14) Yeltsin was speaking, however, about wage arrears in the public sector, which... MORE

Russian interior minister Anatoly Kulikov today discounted the idea of an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. The Russian Security Council meets this afternoon to consider a peace plan for the war-torn republic. In Grozny, fighting continued yesterday during Minister of Defense Grachev's visit... MORE

Deputy U.S. secretary of state Strobe Talbott held talks in Moscow with top government and foreign policy officials March 12-13. The visit was devoted to preparations for U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher's March 22 visit to Moscow. (Interfax, March 13) Yeltsin Pledges to Clear... MORE

Russian forces today continued bombing and shelling the town of Bamut in western Chechnya, apparently poised to storm it. Fifteen thousand residents have fled the destroyed town into neighboring Ingushetia. The Russian command claimed yesterday that Ingush had joined Bamut's Chechen defenders. (Russian and Western... MORE

Turkmenistan opened the Oil and Gas 96 international exhibition in Ashgabat March 12

1. Interfax & Reuter, March 13 2. Delovaya Rossiya, March 11 3. The New York Times, March 13 4. The New York Times & Reuter, March 13 5. Reuter, March 13 6. Reuter, March 13 7. RTR, Interfax, March 13 8. NTV, March 13 9.... MORE

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma yesterday pledged support for a military reform program involving manpower cuts and force modernization. Kuchma was addressing Defense Ministry staff in introducing the new General Staff chief, Lt. General Oleksandr Zatynaiko. Ministry officials indicated that the armed forces' manpower will be... MORE