Russia's impending space launch of communications satellites may be too late to catch up with a fast-moving market Rossel Withdraws from "Russian Reforms - A New Course."

Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko yesterday defended remarks he made in an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt, in which he praised Adolf Hitler for his creation of a strong German state, and compared his own role to that of the Nazi leader. "The history of... MORE

The lower house of Kyrgyzstan's legislature has rejected last week's proposal by the upper house to hold a referendum on elevating the Russian language to official status on a par with the Kyrgyz language. Lower house chairman Almambet Matubraimov objected that such a decision could... MORE

Eduard Shevardnadze yesterday took the oath of office as president of Georgia and was blessed by patriarch Ilia II in the cathedral of the country's ancient capital Mtskheta. Shevardnadze's inaugural address reaffirmed the commitment to reforms and to interethnic pacification by creating a Georgian Federation,... MORE

Moscow's political/military designs in Moldova seem to be encountering less resistance from the country's president. Because Mircea Snegur has severely damaged his domestic political base and now feels dependent on Russian goodwill to secure his reelection next year, and because Russian president Boris Yeltsin has... MORE

Democratic Owners' (Saimnieks) party leader Ziedonis Cevers, the left-leaning National Conciliation Bloc's nominee for prime minister, expects imminently to receive the mandate to form Latvia's new government from President Guntis Ulmanis, after the right-of-center National Bloc's nominee and Ulmanis' first choice Maris Grinblats failed in... MORE

. Russia's Foreign Ministry has handed Azerbaijan a diplomatic note rejecting the definition of Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea as a part of Azerbaijan's territory. That definition is contained in Azerbaijan's constitution published as a draft shortly before its adoption in the November 12... MORE

It is generally agreed that a communist/nationalist victory in December's parliamentary elections will have more immediate repercussions in foreign policy than in domestic policy. A sober and empirically-based analysis by two Russian economists substantiates this prediction by mapping out the probable economic effects of a... MORE

Meanwhile, Shumeiko has asked Yeltsin to suspend, until after the parliamentary elections, the series of privatization auctions that began on November 17. (6) These auctions, which represent the second phase of the Russian government's attempt to transfer state property to private ownership, aim to raise... MORE

The announcement that Federation Council speaker Vladimir Shumeiko and the leaders of some of Russia's most influential regions are to establish a new political movement, "Russian Reforms -- A New Course," met with a skeptical reaction in the Russian media. Writing in the reformist newspaper... MORE