Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma yesterday told a news conference that he and Russian president Boris Yeltsin signed a joint decree removing Admiral Eduard Baltin from the command of the Black Sea Fleet. Stressing that he and Yeltsin each had a copy of the decree, Kuchma... MORE

Less than three years after Belarus signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, president Aleksandr Lukashenko threatened January 18 to redeploy nuclear weapons in that country. Speaking to a gathering of academics in Moscow, Lukashenko depicted such redeployment as a possible response to the security threat ostensibly... MORE

Internal affairs minister Romasis Vaitekunas and the leadership of Lithuania's ruling Democratic Labor Party are defying a presidential demand for the minister's resignation. Despite the public outcry over Vaitekunas's conduct in the country's banking crisis, the DLP party presidium and parliamentary faction have decided that... MORE

Yeltsin economic adviser Aleksandr Livshits told a Kremlin briefing January 18 that a more carefully considered privatization policy was required for the sale of state-owned assets. Livshits is considered the front-runner to replace departed First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, although former Deputy Premier Aleksandr... MORE

The Duma yesterday elected five new deputy chairmen: Svetlyana Goryacheva (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), Aleksandr Shokhin ("Russia is our Home"), Artur Chilingarov (Regions of Russia ), Sergei Baburin (People's Rule ), and Mikhail Gutseriev (Liberal Democratic party). Voting took place amid sharp controversy... MORE

During yesterday's Duma session, speaker Gennady Seleznev was challenged to hand in his Communist party card and become non-affiliated like his predecessor Ivan Rybkin. Seleznev refused, later telling an audience he had made the mistake of leaving the party in 1991 and would never do... MORE

While U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher yesterday expressed alarm about recent events in Russia, U.S. president Bill Clinton said Russia was still a democracy and should be given wide berth when reacting to specific incidents of terrorism. Speaking at Harvard University, Christopher said Russia... MORE

In Turkey, law enforcement authorities appeared successful in their bid to defuse the tension over the seizure of the ferryboat Avrazya and steer the event toward a nonviolent solution. Authorities continued to talk to the armed pro-Chechen group in possession of the boat and its... MORE

Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin yesterday implicitly described the military operation against Chechen hostage-takers in Dagestan as part of the battle against international terrorism. Reflecting Moscow's frustration over foreign criticism of the brutal military action, he warned that indecision on terrorism by the world community... MORE

Russian special troops yesterday conducted mop-up operations in Pervomayskoye after destroying the Dagestani village in three days of artillery and rocket bombardment. The total destruction of the village appears likely to have resulted in the deaths of an estimated 100 hostages held there by Chechen... MORE