European leaders offered their support for Russia's admission to the Council of Europe over this weekend, despite a steady stream of criticism of Moscow's brutal response to the Dagestan hostage crisis. Although council secretary-general Daniel Tarschys said January 19 in Strasbourg that he had expressed... MORE

There was still no reliable news today on the whereabouts of 29 Russian workers apparently snatched from the hostel of a Grozny heating plant January 16. In another hostage situation, Russian authorities yesterday claimed to have determined the place of detention of 30 Russian construction... MORE

Speaking after a meeting of G-7 finance ministers and central bankers in Paris, German finance minister Theo Waigel warned that Russia would receive funding and achieve debt rescheduling only if it continued to meet the terms of its agreement with IMF. While the German minister... MORE

The Turkish government succeeded January 19 in obtaining the peaceful release of all hostages aboard the ferryboat Avrazia, seized three days earlier in the Black Sea by an armed pro-Chechen group. The hostages included more than 150, mostly Russian, passengers and a mostly Turkish crew... MORE

Russian press analyses this weekend of the carnage in Pervomaiskoye contained growing evidence that Russia's "power" ministries decided to sacrifice hostages' lives in order to kill their captors. It now appears clear that a large number of Chechen fighters, together with some hostages, successfully broke... MORE

1. Interfax, Itar-Tass, Western agencies, January 18 and 19 2. Interfax, Itar-Tass, Western agencies, January 18 and 19 3. UPI, Reuter January 18 4. Reuter, January 18 5. Izvestiya, January 19; Interfax, January 18 6. Izvestiya, January 18 7. Financial Times, January 19 8. Izvestiya,... MORE

. The European Union's coordinating office in Ashgabat yesterday endorsed Turkmenistan's economic reform program for 1996. The program's main features include implementing price deregulation as of January 1, ending state subsidies to unprofitable enterprises, moving toward privatization, and lowering the budget deficit to 1 percent... MORE

Boris Yeltsin and Eduard Shevardnadze conferred on measures to settle the Abkhazia conflict in Moscow yesterday on the eve of the CIS summit. The two presidents were said to agree on the need to accelerate the settlement process and join forces against "aggressive separatism." According... MORE

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma yesterday accused Russia's Fuel and Energy Ministry (Mintopenergo) of "staging a political show" in opposing Ukraine's recent transit fee increase on Russian oil piped through Ukraine. Ukraine is within its rights to raise the fees unilaterally, said Kuchma, just as Russia... MORE

Lukashenko's remarks and the putative Russian-Belarusian military alliance underscore the delicate position of Ukraine regarding NATO expansion. Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma repeated to the press yesterday that Ukraine opposed any rapid expansion of NATO, preferring instead a long-term process that would avoid splitting Europe into... MORE