Latest Monitor Articles
KUCHMA TO VISIT UNITED STATES AND HOST CLINTON IN TURN.
While on an official visit to Finland, Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma conferred with U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher February 8 before Christopher's meeting with Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov in Helsinki. U.S. officials announced afterward that Kuchma had been invited on a working visit... MORE
LITHUANIAN PRIME MINISTER FORCED OUT, SUCCESSOR NAMED.
The Lithuanian parliament voted by a wide margin February 8 to approve a presidential decree dismissing Prime Minister Adolfas Slezevicius. Addressing the parliament before the vote, President Algirdas Brazauskas recounted his unheeded requests to Slezevicius over the past month to resign because of public disapproval... MORE
ZHIRINOVSKY CELEBRATES SILVER WEDDING IN STYLE…
In what a BBC correspondent described as "a shameless publicity stunt" and the opening salvo in Vladimir Zhirinovsky's presidential campaign, the nationalist leader and his wife of 25 years renewed their vows in an Orthodox cathedral in Moscow yesterday. The couple drove to the cathedral... MORE
…ANNOUNCES INTENT TO LINK FAR-RIGHT MOVEMENTS OF EUROPE.
During a Moscow news conference a day earlier, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France's National Front, wished each other well in their presidential ambitions and announced their intention this year to link the far-right movements of Europe. "We think our meeting will... MORE
GAIDAR AGAIN TRIES TO UNITE DEMOCRATS.
Yegor Gaidar, leader of Russia's Democratic Choice, called on Russian democrats over the weekend to start collecting the one million signatures required to nominate Nizhny Novgorod Governor Boris Nemtsov as a presidential candidate. Gaidar proposed Nemtsov should run on a "joint ticket" by undertaking to... MORE
GRACHEV CONDEMNS SEIZURE OF BOSNIAN SERB OFFICERS.
Russian defense minister Pavel Grachev has criticized as "unjust" the detention by the Bosnian government of Bosnian Serb General Djordje Djukic and a group of Bosnian Serb officers. Grachev, whose remarks came during a press conference in Belgrade February 9, said that Russia planned to... MORE
DID PLUTONIUM COME FROM RUSSIA?
Two German publications have alleged that highly radioactive plutonium seized by German police at the Munich airport in August 1994 did indeed originate in Russia. The German weekly Focus and the daily Bild reported over the weekend that Russian intelligence officials had informed the Justice... MORE
RUSSIA TIGHTENS CONTROL OVER IMPORTED ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO.
The Russian government has in recent weeks adopted a number of measures aimed at regulating the production, import, and marketing of alcohol and tobacco products in Russia. Traders have been warned that they will lose their licenses if they charge lower than state-set prices and... MORE
1995 CREDIT PAID; IMF MULLS NEW LOAN TO RUSSIA.
The IMF last week approved payment of the last monthly tranche of the $6.3 billion standby credit it agreed with Russia in April 1995. The announcement of the decision made no reference to the $9 billion extended credit, to be allocated for three years, that... MORE
YELTSIN’S FORMER PRESS SECRETARY RESIGNS AMBASSADORIAL POST AFTER MEMOIRS PUBLISHED.
Vyacheslav Kostikov has resigned his post as Russian ambassador to the Vatican following publication in the mass circulation Argumenty i fakty of extracts from his account of the years he spent as President Yeltsin's press secretary. The book depicts ruthless in-fighting inside the presidential apparatus... MORE