1. Itar-Tass, Interfax, NTV, Reuter, various Western media, January 17 and 18 2. ORT [Russian Public Television], "Vremya," January 17 3. Izvestiya, January 18 4. Russian TV & Interfax, January 17 5. ORT, "Vremya," January 17 6. Itar-Tass, January 17 7. BBC World Service, January... MORE

Georgia's parliament yesterday voted overwhelmingly to ratify the 1993 treaty of friendship and cooperation with Russia. The timing of the ratification appears related to the impending CIS summit, where Georgia plans to force the Abkhaz issue to a head and needs Russian support. The Russian... MORE

Swiss foreign minister and 1996 OSCE chairman Flavio Cotti told Moldovan leaders January 16 in Chisinau that OSCE lacked the means for sending peacekeeping troops to the conflict zone in Transdniester. OSCE can only use preventive diplomacy with regard to the four-year old conflict, Cotti... MORE

Differences between Russia and Ukraine erupted anew yesterday following a presidential summit in Moscow (see Monitor, January 17). Ukrainian foreign minister Hennady Udovenko said publicly after the January 16 summit that Yeltsin had agreed to decouple the dispute over the Black Sea fleet from his... MORE

An industrial advisor to President Leonid Kuchma yesterday declared that "Ukraine is in an extremely difficult economic situation and is gradually descending to the level of colonial countries." According to advisor Serhy Pohorelov, only 25 percent of Ukrainian enterprises are stable and industry overall is... MORE

President Algirdas Brazauskas has asked Internal Affairs Minister Romasis Vaitekunas to resign, Lietuvos Rytas reported yesterday. The minister has been under fire for having apparently used privileged information to retrieve his money from a commercial bank only days before the government announced its collapse. The... MORE

The Patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul), Bartolomeos I, has agreed to resume his patriarchy's canonical jurisdiction over Estonia's Apostolic Orthodox Church (EAOC). Most of the 80 Orthodox parishes in Estonia now affiliated with the Moscow patriarchy are said to have announced their intention to switch to... MORE

World leaders continued to walk a tightrope yesterday as they criticized Chechen hostage-takers while admonishing Moscow to abandon its brutal response to the crisis. The most serious repercussions for Moscow may come from Germany and the Council of Europe. German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel underscored... MORE

Following the dismissal of Russia's leading economic reformer, the United States urged President Yeltsin not to abandon the path of reform. (7) Calling Anatoly Chubais "perhaps the most important official dealing with economic reform in Russia," State Department spokesman Nick Burns said the United States... MORE

The Duma yesterday adopted a motion deploring the Russian government's handling of the Chechen conflict, criticizing it for inconsistency in dealing with the rebels and for failing to provide truthful information to the public. The statement also criticized the Chechen rebels for "terrorist" acts. However,... MORE