With growing persistence but apparently with different objectives in mind, Georgian officials are asserting their country's legal right to a share of the ex-USSR's Black Sea Fleet. Foreign minister Irakly Menagarishvili, who enjoys president Eduard Shevardnadze's confidence, and fleet commander Aleksandr Djavakhishvili argue that Georgia... MORE

President Mircea Snegur's foreign policy adviser Petru Dascal told a Chisinau briefing that the protocol on Russian-Moldovan mutual defense assistance, signed in February 1995 by Snegur and Boris Yeltsin, represents part of an effort to replace the obsolete 1990 political treaty with a new one.... MORE

In the runup to an official visit to Lithuania, Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski has ruled out any possibility of a transit corridor for Russia and Belarus to Koenigsberg/Kaliningrad across northeastern Poland. Kwasniewski cited primarily technical and environmental considerations. Lithuania's state secretary for foreign affairs Albinas... MORE

. The governing Democratic Labor Party's Council yesterday designated parliament chairman Ceslovas Jursenas as the party's temporary chairman in place of Adolfas Slezevicius, who was recently forced out as prime minister. The Council issued an urgent appeal for party unity and end to factional activities.... MORE

The Russian parliament is scheduled to hold a second round of closed hearings tomorrow on ratification of the START II Treaty. Following the first round of hearings, on February 19, deputies complained that they still lacked the necessary information to make an informed decision. A... MORE

Asked what would happen to his movement if Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov were elected in June, Filatov said, "All of us will find ourselves in Lefortovo [prison]." Speculation is raging in the Russian media that Yeltsin and his inner circle are so afraid that... MORE

To general surprise, Communist candidates were heavily defeated February 25 in mayoral and local legislative elections in Stavropol Krai and Yaroslavl Oblast. The Communist party had been pinning great hopes on these elections, seeing them as a dress rehearsal for the presidential elections in June.... MORE

Abjuring his own past pledges to keep the military out of politics, Defense Minister Pavel Grachev called March 1 for the army to back Boris Yeltsin in the upcoming presidential election. "The army should not swing from one side to the other. Today's political course... MORE

The well-known journalist Aleksandr Minkin poured scorn on Yeltsin's remark last week, in which the president said that democrats would vote for him as president since "they don't have any other choice." The remark, Minkin fumed, made it "quite clear that president doesn't consider and... MORE

Russian forces launched an all-out assault during the weekend against Bamut and Sernovodsk, major Chechen strongholds in the western part of the republic. Consistent with the recent pattern of attacks against resistance-controlled settlements, Russian forces have imposed an information blackout and are using artillery and... MORE