Officially, polling day in Russia is December 17, but 1,000 Russian border troops kicked off the process yesterday when they voted in far-flung border outposts and on sea-going vessels. (1) In all, some 200,000 border troops are expected to vote in special booths set up... MORE

Russian helicopter gunships fired rockets into the center of Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city today, the first day of voting in national and local elections in the rebel region. Casualties are reported to have been heavy. Russian soldiers on the scene told Reuter that rebel forces... MORE

Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev said yesterday that he would declare the December 17 elections null and void in the republic but would not use force to disrupt them. Dudayev called for renewed negotiations with Moscow as "not only possible, but necessary" but he predicted that... MORE

The UN secretary-general's special envoy to the inter-Tajik talks, Ramiro Piriz-Ballon, indicated yesterday that he may fly to Moscow in an apparent attempt to make it lean on its Tajik proteges to observe the cease-fire. Opposition chief delegate Akbar Turajonzoda announced the preceding day in... MORE

Georgia's recently inaugurated president Eduard Shevardnadze submitted December 11 a list of ministerial nominees for consideration by the parliament. The outgoing deputy prime minister, Irakly Menagarishvili is nominated as foreign minister in place of Alexander Chikvaidze. A medical doctor by profession and Health Minister under... MORE

Interviewed in Finland's leading daily Helsingin Sanomat December 11, Russia's ambassador to Finland Yuri Deryabin suggests that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania should adopt a policy of nonalignment on the Finnish or the Swedish model. Moreover, Russia would not object if Estonia for example were to... MORE

Ukraine is "profoundly concerned" by lack of progress in settling the Transdniester conflict, according to a statement by Volodymyr Furkalo, a senior adviser to Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma and his plenipotentiary representative to Transdniester settlement negotiations. The statement criticized the Russian Duma's recent resolution in... MORE

Ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky yesterday said his new book titled "The Last Blow On Russia" was a warning to the West against "the continuation of attempts to destroy Russia." "If these attempts are not stopped, an international catastrophe will inevitably follow," Zhirinovsky said at his... MORE

Chechnya's Soviet-era legislature voted yesterday to begin the elections in the republic tomorrow, three days ahead of schedule. It also passed an electoral law requiring a minimum turnout of 25 percent for a valid election of a "head of the republic," and a simple majority... MORE

With the Duma elections just four days away, sociological surveys throughout the Russian Federation are reporting their findings on regional voting intentions. These apparently tend to show a pattern of preference for four main parties -- the Communists, "Russia is Our Home", Yabloko, and "Women... MORE