Senior Russian officials continue looking for ways around President Boris Yeltsin's sudden orders to hold concurrent federal and republican elections December 17 in Chechnya. In Moscow, presidential chief of staff Sergei Filatov ventured his "personal opinion" that the holding of elections could further aggravate the... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin's old foe Ruslan Khasbulatov launched a bid to become leader of breakaway Chechnya today, but there is a risk of violence disrupting next month's elections. Khasbulatov, the former speaker of the Russian parliament, was nominated by his party in Chechnya--the People's... MORE

Kazakhstan plans to boost crude oil extraction from the current 21.6 million tons to 47.6 million tons by the year 2000, and to 71 million tons by 2010. More than half of the planned increase will come from the giant Tengiz oilfield on the Caspian... MORE

On November 17, the Russian Duma passed a resolution urging Russia's' president and government to declare Transdniester a zone of special Russian interests, to open a Russian general consulate in Tiraspol, to consider the official recognition of the "Dniester Republic" by Russia, and to send... MORE

US Defense Secretary William Perry is currently visiting Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia as the head of a 30-strong Defense Department delegation. Perry is conferring with the three countries' presidents and their foreign and defense ministers on US military assistance, both directly and in the framework... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin has issued a decree authorizing the sale of precious metals to provide extra money to the Pension Fund, said Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Yarov. He believes the measure "will permit full payment of all pensions for November." (10) Roughly 35 million of... MORE

Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev yesterday told a gathering of World War II veterans that the Nuremberg trials after that war must serve as a warning to those who "cherish ideas of fascism, militarism, or discrimination against ethnic minorities." Claiming that he was not drawing... MORE

Russia could pull out of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty on arms reduction if NATO expands eastward, a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official warned yesterday. Reiterating Russia's position on the CFE treaty three days after it violated its terms, he said: "In the case... MORE

The chairman of the Duma's Legislation Committee, Vladimir Isakov, has described the question of "how the next authorities will treat the present ones" as "the main election issue" in Russia today. His remarks come in the wake of thinly veiled threats issued on the campaign... MORE

The governor of the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Eduard Rossel, says he expects to visit President Yeltsin in the hospital soon and to set a date for the signing by his region and the federal center of a comprehensive package of treaties regulating their future relations. The... MORE