Interviewed by NTV on Friday evening, Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov said he was confident he would be elected president in June as long as the elections go ahead. But he said he was worried that Yeltsin might try to find a way to cancel... MORE

1. Itar-Tass and western agencies, February 15 2. Interfax, Russian TV, NTV, February 15 3. Interfax, February 15; Financial Times, February 16 4. Reuter, February 15 5. Itar-Tass, February 15 6. Interfax, February 15 7. Interfax, February 15 8. Reuter, February 15 9. Reuter, February... MORE

On a visit to Turkey this week, Turkmen president Saparmurat Niazov agreed with his counterpart Suleyman Demirel to sell Turkmen gas to Turkey on a massive scale. A memorandum of understanding signed by the two presidents envisages the delivery to Turkey of 227 billion cubic... MORE

The human rights organization Freedom House has awarded Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma its annual Freedom Award for his foreign and domestic policies. Among Kuchma's merits, Freedom House listed his contribution to regional stability, cooperation with international organizations including NATO, promotion of interethnic consensus, and his... MORE

By a vote of 315 to 1 on February 14, the Russian Duma overrode a Federation Council veto of a Duma bill to end "unilateral reductions" of the Russian-controlled Black Sea Fleet. President Boris Yeltsin is now required to sign the bill into law. The... MORE

The Lithuanian parliament yesterday approved president Algirdas Brazauskas' nomination of Mindaugas Stankevicius as prime minister. The governing Democratic Labor Party (DLP) voted in favor of the nomination while most of the opposition declined to take part in the vote. Stankevicius pledged to continue economic reforms... MORE

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against Russia's former acting procurator general, Aleksei Ilyushenko, under Articles 170 (abuse of office) and 173 (taking bribes) of the Russian Criminal Code. The charges against Ilyushenko, who was arrested yesterday, arose out of investigations into alleged fraud by the... MORE

French and British engineers working for firms retained by the European Union are investigating an aging Russian ship loaded with highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel to see if it constitutes a threat to the region. The ship is anchored in the northern port of Murmansk,... MORE

As expected, French prime minister Alain Juppe offered Russia credits worth up to $800 million yesterday on the basis of agreements signed with his Russian counterpart Viktor Chernomyrdin. The two signed an umbrella accord formally establishing a committee on joint cooperation, and concluded five agreements... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin issued a decree yesterday formalizing the participation of Russian forces in the NATO-led Bosnian peace implementation force (IFOR). Yeltsin also ordered the government to ensure proper financing of the force in both rubles and foreign currency. Meanwhile, a Russian Foreign Ministry... MORE