The Duma January 23 sent an appeal to Boris Yeltsin urging him to suspend a Defense Ministry order placing two airborne divisions and four brigades of airborne assault forces under the immediate or operational command of Russia's ground forces. The planned transfer, which bears an... MORE

Production in Russian's defense industrial complex fell by 21.1 percent in 1995 and employment in the sector dropped by 14.3 percent from November 1994 to November 1995, according to an official of the Russian state committee for defense industry. Averages wages in the industry were... MORE

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin yesterday denied a Western press report on delays in U.S.-Russian nuclear cooperation. The report alleged Russia had balked at implementing nuclear security and weapons inspection agreements reached in May 1995 and claimed Moscow's delaying tactics were causing concern in... MORE

Two days before a contentious vote on Russia's admission to the Council of Europe, the Russian president's office released an official statement urging that Russia be approved for membership. Despite enduring imperfections, the statement reads, Russia has made tremendous strides in the development of democratic... MORE

In a 147-19 vote yesterday, governor of Orel oblast Yegor Stroyev was elected chairman of the upper house of parliament. Stroyev, born in 1937, is a trained agronomist and a graduate of the Leningrad Higher Party School. A member of the CPSU from 1958 to... MORE

Pakistani news sources report that Russian military advisors have returned to Afghanistan for the first time since Soviet troops left the country in 1989. In what was said to be an effort to prop up the beleaguered regime of President Burhannudin Rabbani, ten Russian technicians... MORE

Sergei Kovalev resigned yesterday as head of the Russian presidential human rights commission, saying he could no longer work with president Yeltsin. Kovalev said Yeltsin had abandoned the path of democratic reform. Over the past year Kovalev has earned the enmity of hard-liners in all... MORE

1. Interfax, Itar-Tass, Russian TV, NTV, Reuter, January 21 and 22 2. Interfax and Russian TV, January 18 3. Russian TV, "Vesti" newscast, January 20 4. NTV, January 20 5. Reuter, January 22 6. Interfax, January 22 7. BBC World Service, January 23 8. Interfax,... MORE

Tajikistan's highest religious official, Mufti Fathullo Sharifzoda (Sharipov), was assassinated January 21 in his family home in Dushanbe along with four members of his family on the first day of Ramadan. As an imam in Hissar, Sharifzod supported pro-Communist, pro-Moscow forces in the 1992-93 civil... MORE

At the CIS summit of heads of state January 19, signatories to the 1993 agreement on collective peacekeeping extended the mandate of the peacekeeping force in Tajikistan until 30 June 1996. The extension was granted at the request of Tajik president Emomali Rakhmonov. CIS state... MORE