Bonn and Paris have urged Russia to exercise restraint in dealing with the Chechen hostage-takers in Pervomaiskoye. During a hastily called press conference, German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel said Bonn had expressed its concern to Moscow through diplomatic channels, but had not contacted the rebel... MORE

The seizure of hostages by Chechen rebels in Dagestan "has seriously hurt the struggle of the Chechen people for independence or autonomy," Iran's state-run radio said yesterday. Tehran charged that the hostage-taking had strengthened hawks in the Kremlin and had provided Boris Yeltsin an opportunity... MORE

Boris Yeltsin should not seek re-election as president because of his well-known health problems, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said yesterday. The 64-year-old Yeltsin has suffered two heart attacks in the past four months and is believed to have other ailments as well. The health... MORE

Yegorov told reporters yesterday to expect additional personnel changes in the presidential administration, but not a wholesale purge. Yegorov intimated that the results of the December elections had convinced Yeltsin to focus more on social policy. That theme apparently also dominated a meeting between Yeltsin... MORE

Tumultuous developments of recent days appear to have left Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin marginalized in the Kremlin. Despite a low-key meeting yesterday with Boris Yeltsin, Chernomyrdin played no public role in the recent shake-up of Yeltsin's staff that brought hawks into several key positions,... MORE

For two consecutive days and nights, Russian forces have assaulted a Chechen detachment still holding more than 100 hostages in Dagestan's village of Pervomaiskoye, located near the border with Chechnya. As of this morning, crack special units of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and Internal... MORE

Capping several days of speculation and rumor, Russian first deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais announced his resignation last night. The forty-year-old economist joined the government under reformist Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar in 1991 and was a key architect of Russian economic reform and, especially, the... MORE

1. Russian TV, January 12-15; Interfax, Reuter, January 13-15 2. Itar-Tass, Interfax, Reuter, January 15 and 16 3. Interfax & Reuter, January 15 4. Itar-Tass, Interfax, Russian TV, January 14 and 15 5. Interfax, Itar-Tass, Russian TV, January 12 6. Interfax, January 12 7. The... MORE

Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze last week sent Russian president Boris Yeltsin a personal letter and a set of letters and documents to the presidents of CIS countries containing proposals for settling the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. Georgia seeks to have the proposals adopted by the upcoming January... MORE

Last week's election of 58-year-old Agrarian party leader Semyon Sharetsky as speaker of the new Belarusian parliament was reportedly an unpleasant surprise for the country's antidemocratic president, Aleksandr Lukashenko. Although their opinions on certain major issues coincide -- both Sharetsky and Lukashenko oppose NATO expansion,... MORE