Four years of complicated negotiations were capped yesterday in Ottawa, when the G-7 and the European Union's Commission pledged to assist Ukraine with the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Canada, current holder of the G-7's rotating presidency, signed the memorandum of understanding on... MORE

The governments of the three Baltic countries have in the last few days finalized decisions regarding their participation in the Bosnia peacekeeping operation under the aegis of NATO. At their request and pursuant to NATO decisions, each Baltic country will contribute a platoon which will... MORE

Voters in the Republic of Bashkortostan rejected wholesale land privatization December 17. In a referendum held at the same time as the parliamentary elections, 84 percent of voters in the central Russian republic said they opposed the introduction of a free market for land. (13)... MORE

Results from the December 17 Duma balloting in Russia's military installations were collected and publicized at an early hour the next day, before much of the civilian vote was in. As officially summarized by the defense ministry, "the overwhelming majority of armed forces personnel supported... MORE

President and Commander-in-Chief Boris Yeltsin yesterday awarded Marshal Stars to four men: Federal Security Service Director Mikhail Barsukov, First Deputy Defense Minister and Armed Forces' Chief of Staff General Mikhail Kolesnikov, Internal Affairs Minister Anatoly Kulikov, and Federal Border Service Director Andrei Nikolayev. The ceremony... MORE

Russian citizens who choose to stay abroad and refuse to return home will no longer, as in Soviet times, be charged with treason. Russia's Constitutional Court has ruled article 64 of the Criminal Code, which classifies escape from Russia and refusal to return as forms... MORE

In another unverifiable and implausible result of the elections in Chechnya, Russia's military commissar for the republic, Maj. General Ibrahim Suleymenov, was proclaimed yesterday the winner of the Duma seat from Chechnya as a single-mandate constituency. Suleymenov's candidacy was sponsored by the Defense Ministry which... MORE

The Ministry for Emergency Situations hopes to bring home today the seven Russian airmen held hostage by the Taliban grouping in Afghanistan's city Kandahar. According to a ministry statement, representatives of Yeltsin's office, the Russian government, and the Foreign Ministry, together with a medical team,... MORE

A member of the State Council of the Komi Republic of the Russian Federation, Yevgeny Leontiev, was gunned down at the Vorkuta airport yesterday and died in an ambulance, said police in Vorkuta. His bodyguard was gravely injured. Leontiev ran a wholesale trading company; a... MORE

Also in Komi, sixteen coalmine builders remain on a hunger strike begun December 15 at Zapolyarnaya mine. Their action was prompted by a "complete lack of money," said a spokesman for the protesters. Management owed the builders more than 160 million rubles in back wages... MORE