Volunteers are enlisting in local self-defense battalions in Cossack settlements in the northern Caucasus, Cossack leader Alexander Martynov told a Moscow press conference January 10. (8) Martynov said many of the volunteers were veterans of Moscow's war in Afghanistan. Cossacks have been calling for the... MORE

Nikolai Ryzhkov, former prime minister of the USSR, will form a faction in the new Duma called Narodovlastie (Popular Power). (10) Ryzhkov expects to gather 38 members -- three more than the minimum 35 required for an officially registered faction. Joining Ryzhkov will be Russian... MORE

Reactions in Moscow to Primakov's appointment were generally favorable. Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Chernyshev called Primakov an "optimal" choice, an assessment echoed by Yeltsin's foreign affairs advisor, Dmitri Rurikov. Given the reactions of leaders of political parties represented in the Duma, his appointment appears unlikely... MORE

Addressing Foreign Ministry staff yesterday, Boris Yeltsin lauded newly appointed Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov as an "experienced statesman and professional...who knows organizational work and is a person of broad vistas, honesty, and decency." Yeltsin said the transfer of Primakov from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service... MORE

Agrarian party founder Semyon Sharetsky was elected chairman of the new Belarusian Supreme Council yesterday. He succeeds Myacheslau Hryb, a vocal opponent of President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Hryb removed his name from contention but nevertheless received some votes. Lukashenko's preferred candidate for speaker, former prime minister... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin departed Moscow January 10 to attend the funeral of former French president Francois Mitterrand. Yeltsin is scheduled to return January 11. It is his first trip abroad since suffering a heart attack in October 1995. Russian President Might Reshuffle Government.

In recent days, Yeltsin has accepted the resignations of First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai, Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, State Property Committee chairman Sergei Belyaev, and minister without portfolio Nikolai Travkin, in connection with those officials' election to the Duma. Minister of Transport Vitaly Yefimov... MORE

. The LDPR's Krasnoyarsk organization launched a move to oust party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky at the seventh congress of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), held January 10 in Moscow. The Krasnoyarsk rebels accused Zhirinovsky of abusing his position to amass a private fortune and of... MORE

Boris Yeltsin named Col. General Vyacheslav Trubnikov yesterday to the post of director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Trubnikov, 51, became First Deputy Director of the SVR in January 1992. He replaces former SVR director Yevgeny Primakov, who was appointed Foreign Minister January... MORE

The presidential press service reported January 10 that Yeltsin had signed into law the foreign intelligence bill passed by the State Duma in December 1995. The law defines the status and functions of the SVR and comes into effect on the day it is published.... MORE