Ukraine's Defense Ministry has announced that a German military delegation is in Kiev to plan the first-ever German-Ukrainian military staff exercises, to be held in March near Odessa and that a US military delegation is in Lviv to plan the participation of Ukrainian units stationed... MORE

The elation of President Lukashenko's foes following Sunday's election of a viable parliament may be short-lived. In fundamental respects, the new assembly promises to be even less reform-minded than the outgoing one. The Popular Front caucus, the engine of independence and democratization since 1990, led... MORE

The Estonian parliament has decided to suspend consideration of President Lennart Meri's December 3 dismissal of the army commander, Lt. General Alexander Einseln, and nomination of a successor. In trying to dismiss Einseln, Meri had sided with civilian defense minister Andrus Oovel in his public... MORE

Officials from the International Monetary Fund are in Moscow this week for talks with the Russian government on the IMF's three-year extended financing program to fund Russia's economic reforms. The talks got off to a good start with the announcement that the IMF has agreed... MORE

Over 5,000 educational establishments from more than 50 regions have pledged to take part in a two-day Russia-wide strike starting tomorrow, according to a statement yesterday by Vladimir Yakovlev, leader of educational and scientific workers' unions. He said the action is in support of demands... MORE

An official at the Moscow City Center for Sanitary and Epidemic Inspection (Mossannadzor) yesterday said the number of flu patients in Moscow in the past two weeks reached almost 415,000. (7) Balts Said to Block Normalization With Russia.

"The Baltic states' reluctance to accept Russia as a good neighbor is the principal obstacle to normalization of relations," Valery Loshchinin, the Russian Foreign Ministry's main official in charge of Baltic affairs,said yesterday. Faulting the Baltic states for "demonstratively refusing to see that Russia wants... MORE

Last-minute calls for unity among Russian reformers have fallen on deaf ears. Yelena Bonner and Boris Fedorov issued separate appeals December 13, calling on the leaders of small reform- oriented parties and blocs to withdraw from Sunday's parliamentary elections. Otherwise, they warned, the democratic vote... MORE

As many as 888 foreign observers have been accredited by the Central Election Commission (TsIK), head of the TsIK's international department Andrei Davydov said at a briefing yesterday. There will be about 900-950 observers in total, with the largest delegations coming from the countries of... MORE

A bill on entry into and exit from Russia, passed December 8 by the Duma and forwarded for approval to the Federation Council, would cancel business passports, which until now were needed for business travel, according to Vyacheslav Igrunov, one of the law's authors. The... MORE