Antonio Cassese, head of the UN criminal tribunal for former Yugoslavia, will visit Russia later this month, probably ahead of the March 23 meeting of the Contact Group in Moscow. Many in Russia have accused the tribunal of bias in the indictments that it has... MORE

Decoded fragments of raw intelligence from the World War II era, declassified March 5, suggest that the Soviet Union controlled a ring of more than 100 wartime spies in the United States who worked in the FBI, the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the... MORE

Member of the Russian Duma Aleksandr Lebed says he left the PeopleÕs Power parliamentary group because he intends to run for president and wants to be independent. The leader of the group, Nikolai Ryzhkov, said LebedÕs decision was not connected with RyzhkovÕs endorsement, in his... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin said today that his government has decided on a plan to end the of bloodshed in Chechnya. Yeltsin said the plan included both negotiations with, and military measures against, the separatists. (UPI, March 7) ( See story below) Russian Duma Lashes... MORE

The Russian Duma released a statement yesterday that accused the United States of deliberately using the February 24 downing of two U.S. civilian aircraft by Cuban fighters to foment a "campaign of hysteria against Cuba" and to push through a law tightening economic sanctions on... MORE

Sketchy reports on Tuesday's closed Duma hearing, devoted to discussion of START II ratification, suggested that a failure by the president's office to lobby vigorously for ratification of the treaty has contributed to formation of a growing consensus in parliament opposed to it. Independent sources... MORE

1. RTR, "Vesti," March 5 2. RTR, March 5 3. Russian Television, Interfax, March 5 4. Interfax, March 5 5. Reuter & Interfax, March 5 6. Interfax, and Russian Public Television, "Vremya," March 5 7. Russian TV, "Delovaya Rossiya," March 4 8. Svenska Dagbladet, February... MORE

Estonia's Foreign Ministry yesterday apologized to Latvia after the Estonian coastal guard detained and boarded a Latvian trawler March 3, mistakenly concluding that it was fishing in Estonian waters. On the same day, the Estonian coastal guard chased another Latvian trawler which had in fact... MORE

On an official tour of the Central Asian countries, Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati has invited their presidents to attend the upcoming opening of the Siraks-Tedjen-Mashhad railroad linking Turkmenistan and Iran. To be hosted by the two countries' presidents, Saparmurad Niazov and Hashemi Rafsanjani,... MORE

In his address to Russian textile and light industry representatives yesterday, in which he advocated protection against western competition, President Boris Yeltsin dwelt on the importance of the CIS market for resuscitating those Russian industrial sectors. Yeltsin urged Russian producers to maximize sales on the... MORE