The military bench of Azerbaijan's Supreme Court on March 4 sentenced a former OPON special police officer to death and three other officers to prison terms from 13 to 14 years for the 1994 assassination of the vice chairman of Azerbaijan's parliament and of President... MORE

The ruble corridor, which currently fixes the range within which the ruble can trade against the U.S. dollar at between 4,550 and 5,150 rubles per $1, will remain in place only until July 1, President Yeltsin stated last week. His pronouncement has been welcomed by... MORE

Members of the Swedish defense commission, meeting at the end of last month with top Russian Defense Ministry officials in Moscow, received some of the harshest warnings heard to date on the subject of NATO enlargement, according to a Swedish newspaper report. Generals Dmitri Kharchenko... MORE

Following a meeting yesterday with visiting Czech foreign minister Josef Zieleniec, Primakov warned that the deployment of NATO nuclear warheads on Czech territory would be interpreted by Moscow as an anti-Russian act. He also stated that Moscow's current opposition to NATO enlargement was unrelated to... MORE

In a more explicit enumeration of many of the positions that he has advanced implicitly since his appointment as Russian foreign minister, Yevgeny Primakov said in an interview published yesterday that Russia had earlier gone too far in pursuing partnership with the West. "I don't... MORE

Addressing a meeting of the leaders of the Agrarian party and the Agrarian Union in Moscow yesterday, Gennady Zyuganov pledged to oppose legislation permitting the free sale of land. (3) Zyuganov needs the support of the Agrarian party to win the presidential election; his fellow... MORE

Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas and his Polish counterpart Aleksander Kwasniewski agreed yesterday in Vilnius to coordinate their countries' steps in their quest for European Union and NATO membership. The defense ministers agreed on measures to develop military cooperation, including the formation of a joint battalion... MORE

Handwritten notes to be auctioned off in New York this month indicate that the first Soviet space flight, in April 1961, experienced severe technical problems and nearly ended in disaster and the death of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The private notes were written by Gagarin's commander,... MORE

The second channel of Russian television, RTR, last night highlighted contradictory statements by two leading Communists on this question. (1) At a press conference yesterday, the Communist presidential candidate, Gennady Zyuganov, repeated earlier assurances that business people have nothing to fear from a Communist victory.... MORE

A government resolution issued yesterday indicated that Russia will pay dues of $484.5 million in 1996 to international organizations of which it is member. By far the largest payment, $403 million, will go to the UN. (Interfax, March 5) Lebed Protests.