Yesterday was declared a non-working day in Belarus to encourage the population to go to the polls in the nation's (rerun) elections to the parliament. At stake are 141 parliamentary seats in constituencies where voter turnout in last May's elections was below the legally required... MORE

President Guntis Ulmanis yesterday tasked Ziedonis Cevers to form Latvia's new government. Cevers is the leader of the Democratic Owners' (Samnieks) Party and of the left-leaning National Conciliation Bloc (NCB). Ulmanis told a news conference that the nomination was necessitated by the deadlock in parliament,... MORE

With the preceding, and no doubt other, problems in mind, Kozyrev said that "It happens that one ministry and its head have one opinion and another ministry with its leader another...A supreme arbiter is needed who could bang his fist on the table and say:... MORE

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin admits Russia has an illogical and unwise tax system which amounts to "a system of requisitions." He said his "Russia is Our Home" movement is planning drastic changes in the tax system and its philosophy. The changes would seek to encourage... MORE

Russia's convalescent president Boris Yeltsin and CIS executive secretary Ivan Korotchenya decided yesterday at Yeltsin's Barvikha retreat to schedule the next CIS summit for January 19 in Moscow. Yeltsin, his foreign policy adviser Dmitry Ryurikov, and Korotchenya set the agenda for the summit. On Yeltsin's... MORE

Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev described as unrealistic the idea that Moscow may set up a military-political bloc with other countries to counterbalance NATO's enlargement. "Looking at the map, I do not see with whom we could form an anti-NATO alliance," he said at a session... MORE

In a November 28 TV interview, Kozyrev noted that the leadership had spent the last year and a half discussing how relations with NATO should develop. "Some suggest hiding their heads in the sand, ignoring NATO; others, myself included, stand for cooperation and partnership with... MORE

Once again, the Defense Ministry failed to brief the Foreign Ministry on progress in the negotiations Defense Minister Pavel Grachev held with NATO, the Foreign Ministry's chief military expert, Col. General Boris Gromov said. "It is very likely that Grachev received instructions at the highest... MORE

Vatican and Polish church officials are contesting the legality of Ukaine's expulsion last week of two Catholic priests for allegedly spying on military installations. Both were Polish citizens on a visit to the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Kiev officials insist the expulsion was not related to politics... MORE

Ruslan Khasbulatov, the former chairman of Russia's parliament and arch enemy of Yeltsin, now used by Moscow as a peacemaker in his native republic, is expected to run for the post of "head of the republic" in Chechnya's December 17 elections. In Grozny on November... MORE