Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic party, expects to be the second presidential candidate officially registered by the Central Election Commission, following Gennady Zyuganov, whose candidacy was registered Monday. Zhirinovsky is now in Libya, but his press secretary told Interfax that 1.2 million... MORE

The first stage of the Black Sea Fleet's partition, involving the ships and other movable assets, is due to be completed in the coming days. The Russian and Ukrainian fleet commanders, Vice Admirals Viktor Kravchenko and Volodymyr Bezkorovainy, agreed March 4 in Sevastopol to avoid... MORE

Russia's outspoken minister of atomic energy Viktor Mikhailov said March 5 that NATO expansion is offensive to Russians and "an encroachment" on their dignity. "Those who seek to expand NATO eastward should recall the Caribbean crisis, when Soviet missiles were deployed in Cuba," he told... MORE

Rumors of Defense Minister Pavel Grachev's impending dismissal have risen again. First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets hinted yesterday that the end could be near when he said that President Boris Yeltsin was being pressed to punish "the true authors of the poorly planned Chechen... MORE

Thomas Wolf, head of the IMF mission in Moscow, was quoted yesterday as saying that moves by Russia to restrict imports, including raising tariffs, would arouse serious concern at the IMF and could jeopardize the $10.2 billion three-year extended loan Russia is hoping to receive... MORE

Nearly a week after battle was joined, a potentially explosive trade dispute between Russia and the United States over the export of American poultry parts was resolved. The impasse was broken March 5 when the United States received assurances from Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin... MORE

The U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights worldwide, released yesterday, included Russia among those countries criticized for a "familiar pattern of abuse." The report pointed to "continued and widespread use of Russian military force against civilians in Chechnya, the undermining of official institutions... MORE

President Guntis Ulmanis yesterday asked Latvia's government to urgently prepare a law on mandatory military service. Under existing law, 87 percent of youth aged 19 to 25 are eligible for exemption. Lower ranks currently in uniform are down to some 4,000. Anticipating a failure of... MORE

Senior officials unveiled at a Minsk briefing the energy strategy of Belarus for the decade ahead. The program includes building a nuclear power plant to become operational by the year 2005. An earlier program had envisaged two nuclear plants, but was derailed by Ukraine's 1986... MORE

Russian airbombing and shelling of Sernovodsk and Bamut continued March 5 and 6, as did the information blackout around the operation. Ingush rescue teams briefly allowed by the Russian military in one section of Sernovodsk counted scores of corpses of civilians, according to Ingushetia's vice... MORE