The US and Moldovan defense ministers, William Perry and Lt. General Pavel Creanga, have signed a memorandum on military cooperation providing for information exchanges among the two ministries, bilateral consultations, and advanced courses for Moldovan officers in US military schools. During his visit to Washington,... MORE

The top hierarchy of the Russian and Belarus Defense Ministries conferred December 8 and 9 in Minsk and signed a total of 18 interministerial and inter-service agreements and protocols of intent. Some of the agreements are said to cover: military-industrial cooperation; withdrawal in 1996 of... MORE

Moscow has launched a protest campaign against the Estonian government for granting legal registration to the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, governed by a synod in Stockholm, and not to the branch of the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate in Estonia. Russia's Foreign Ministry condemned Estonia's "lawlessness... MORE

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Security Council secretary Oleg Lobov signed with the appointed "head" of Chechnya Doku Zavgayev in Moscow December 8 an agreement on the basic principles of relations between the Russian Federation and Chechnya. The document empowers Chechnya to form its... MORE

Anxious that Russia should not be left with only half a parliament and that the upper house should have time to debate the 1996 federal budget adopted by the lower house last week, President Yeltsin has prolonged the term in office of the Federation Council... MORE

Russian Akula and Oscar-2 submarines have shadowed US Trident missile submarines and aircraft carriers off the east and west coasts of the United States in recent months in a surprising surge of activity far from home, the US Navy said on Friday. It was the... MORE

. In defiance of hard-line president Lukashenko's attempts to prevent it, Belarus has elected its first post-Soviet parliament. Official results show that 59 deputies were elected yesterday in the final round of by-elections for 119 seats left empty because of invalid results in May's general... MORE

Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev yesterday said Serb leaders had good reasons to reveal the fate of two French pilots missing in Bosnia and urged their release if they were alive. Recalling that Russia and France were the Serbs closest traditional allies, Kozyrev also was quoted... MORE

Thousands of Chechens took to the streets of Grozny today, the first anniversary of Moscow's brutal attack war on the breakaway republic. They chanted anti-Russian slogans, offered Muslim prayers and, at least as of noon, remained non-violent. (1) US Kuriles Comment Protested.

The Russian Foreign Ministry lodged an official protest with the US Embassy in Moscow Friday in connection with Ambassador Thomas Pickering's call for Moscow to peacefully return the southern Kurile Islands to Japan. The Itar-Tass news agency quoted Pickering as telling journalists on the Russian... MORE