Estonian prime minister Tiit Vahi and Ukrainian ambassador in Tallinn Yuri Oliinichenko discussed November 27 mutual support among the two countries in international organizations. Oliinichenko conveyed a message from Ukrainian prime minister Yevhen Marchuk, expressing thanks for Estonian support and confirming that Ukraine in turn... MORE

Border forces in the southern Kurile islands will be augmented with patrol boats and aircraft in order to ensure that Japanese fishing vessels do not cross Russia's sea border, the Federal Border Service has announced. The Service reports that the Putina-95 operation had revealed an... MORE

Contrary to widespread expectations, the theme of Russians in the "near abroad" and of Russia's relations with the CIS countries has thus far been marginal in Russia's current electoral campaign. Exponents of the leading parties seem for the most part to discuss this subject vaguely... MORE

Planned auctions of shares in three major defense industry companies (the Sukhoi Aircraft Design Bureau, the Ulan-Ude Aircraft Plant and the Arsenievsk Aircraft Plant) have been canceled for national security reasons, it was reported November 28. The auctions had been scheduled for December 17 but,... MORE

Col. General Igor Rodionov, commander of the General Staff Academy and a candidate of the Congress of the Russian Communities (KRO) in the Duma elections, sharply criticizes what he describes as the breakup of Russia's armed services in two different military entities. One consists of... MORE

The respected Russian political scientist and opinion researcher, Igor Klyamkin, says the Communist Party is the "undisputed leader" in the election campaign with 15-16 percent support among the general population. He predicts this support will translate into the ballots of between 20-25 percent of those... MORE

A Russian human rights group has called on the Council of Europe's secretariat to suspend Russia's acceptance into the European Community. "Systematic human rights violations, the undeclared war in Chechnya, absence of a genuine judiciary and political persecution. All of this makes it impossible to... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin yesterday signed a decree conferring on the newly-appointed president of the Central Bank, Vladimir Dubinin, and on the president of the Academy of Sciences, Yuri Osipov, the status of government ministers. By another decree also yesterday, Yeltsin dismissed the Minister of Health... MORE

NATO and Russia have reached an agreement paving the way for Russian forces to take part in an alliance-led peace mission in Bosnia. "This is truly a historic day for NATO," US defense secretary William Perry told reporters after the agreement was announced in Brussels.... MORE

In a series of statements in the last few days, the commands of Russia's border guards and "peacekeeping" troops in Tajikistan and the Federal Border Service command in Moscow charge that insurgents of Tajikistan's Islamic Revival Movement are concentrating opposite Russian and Tajik government positions... MORE