Kyrgyzstan's incumbent president Askar Akayev appeared headed for a landslide victory December 24 against his two remaining opponents in the country's first contested presidential election of the post-Soviet era. According to preliminary reports, the turnout was estimated at some 80 percent of the population, with... MORE

Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper yesterday cited a government report that members of 15 Russian-based criminal organizations had sent agents to Israel and attempted to infiltrate the domestic political system. It also said an internal security report to the Israeli cabinet estimates that worldwide Russian criminal... MORE

The Communist party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) was the biggest winner in the election to the Duma, according to full results issued yesterday. Gennady Zyuganov's party will control more than a third of the Duma's 450 seats. The full returns from the December 17... MORE

Russia's biggest privatization deal involving a foreign company appeared to have collapsed yesterday with the announcement by the Privatization Center that STET, the Italian state-controlled telecoms holding company, declined to buy a 25 percent stake in the Svyazinvest telecommunications company it had won at tender... MORE

Ukraine's State Property Fund has temporarily suspended its plans for privatizing Ukrgazprom gas company and the Ukrneft oil corporation. Sources cited Ukrgazprom's failure to prepare the necessary documents for the sale of shares. The Ukrainian government owns 100 percent of the gas concern and 60... MORE

The Chechen war's second-largest battle to date ended December 24 when Russian forces regained control of Chechnya's second-largest city, Gudermes. The Russian reoccupation of the city occurred after Chechen opposition forces chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov ordered his fighters to slip out of the encircled... MORE

The air traffic controllers' strike launched on December 15 and later suspended will not resume before January 12. On that day an ad-hoc court of arbitration should settle the dispute between the Transportation Ministry and the Air Traffic Controllers' Unions on government funding of the... MORE

Russia's Menatep-Impex company is now supposed to begin delivering oil to Cuba beginning in January 1996, two months later than originally planned. The delay was caused by a shortfall in Cuba's sugar cane crop, which prevented Castro's government from delivering raw sugar to Russia as... MORE

First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais announced yesterday that the government's draft economic program for the first half of 1996 envisages curbing inflation as the top priority. Chubais lashed out against a proposal from "communist opponents" to check inflation by keeping prices under government control.... MORE

Russia's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, flagship of the Murmansk-based Northern Fleet, left for the Mediterranean December 22 to conduct exercise flights of the flagship's aircraft. Russian officials implied that the carrier will be available for possible missions in connection with the Bosnia peacekeeping operation.... MORE