Russia is promoting a refurbished version of its plan for a new security system in Europe that would counterpose the OSCE to NATO. The Russian document, "A Common and Comprehensive Security Model for the 21st Century," has been submitted for the consideration of the regular... MORE

Foreign ministry representative Mikhail Demurin at a news briefing yesterday declined to comment on yesterday's launch of an American spy satellite for surveillance of Russian territory. He said the matter belongs into a "specific area of military activity "in which "Russia has similar programs." (5)... MORE

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn yesterday said he will not take part in the December 17 parliamentary elections because the present election system in Russia is "unfair and false in many ways." Solzhenitsyn said Russia's democracy should be "popular self-government elected vertically from below upwards by qualitative rather... MORE

On winning a loan-for-shares auction on Tuesday, a consortium of the LukOil company and the Imperial Bank will take 5 percent of LukOil's stock in trust, State Property Committee President and chairman of the Auction Commission Alfred Kokh reported. The consortium offered a loan worth... MORE

Russia, in another attempt to forestall violence in connection with the December 17 parliamentary elections, signed an accord on Friday with the pro-Moscow Chechen government which purports to define a special status for rebel Chechnya within the Russian Federation. Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and... MORE

Primorye Territory governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko yesterday denied media reports that Russia and China have finished demarcating their mutual border in Primorye and that Russia has handed over some land to China. The reports are "lies," he said. "Not a single border post has been moved... MORE

Roskhleboprodukt, Russia's grain-trading firm, has bought 1.5 million tons of grain from the United States, Austria, and Hungary, the office of First Deputy Agriculture Minister Vladimir Shcherbak said yesterday. Talk of Russian grain purchases against a backdrop of dwindled world stocks was among factors that... MORE

Local and Western activists today attacked Russia's human rights record, saying there had been a backlash this year against civil liberties. The group's report, released at a Moscow news conference, said Russia's human rights record worsened significantly in 1995. (4) Moscow Restrained on Launch of... MORE

Yesterday's Nezavisimaya gazeta reports that Russia's Foreign Ministry has rejected a US proposal to call an international conference on the Caspian Sea problem under the auspices of the International Energy Agency. The US proposal had been submitted in late October and reflected Washington's position that... MORE

Defense minister Pavel Grachev in his meeting with chairman of the Chinese Central Military Council Liu Huaqin in Moscow yesterday said military cooperation between the two countries has made "China one of Russia's leading partners in military and technical cooperation." The closed-door talks were attended... MORE