If the financing of the armed forces does not improve, only 10-12 percent of Russian air defense installations will remain up to date by the year 2000, a well-informed source at the Defense Ministry said yesterday. He said new weaponry constitutes only 25 percent of... MORE

People of pension age now account for more than 20 percent of the Russian population, and one in every nine inhabitants is over the age of 65. This is according to information released on November 1 by the Ministry of Social Defense, which added, in... MORE

. In an article in yesterday's main armed forces newspaper, Strategic Missile Corps Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Igor Sergeev faulted the government for having so far allocated only 30 percent of the financing needed to organize the reliable safeguarding of weapons-grade plutonium. Missile officers can tolerate... MORE

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said on Friday that he had assumed partial control over key ministers while President Boris Yeltsin recovers from a heart attack. He said he has been "coordinating" the work of the Ministers of Defense, Security, Foreign affairs and the Interior... MORE

. Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, (KPRF) wanted to join forces with the Congress of Russian Communities (KRO) in the upcoming elections. Zyuganov offered the KRO the same deal which the communists have struck with the Agrarian Party.... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin, appearing before cameras for the first time since he was taken to hospital with a heart attack last week, told Russian television on Friday that he was feeling "not bad." But he sounded weak and his voice was a little slurred... MORE

Kazakhstan's foreign minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev said yesterday that he "sees no real basis" for a CIS military bloc. The previous day Tokayev disclosed that his president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, discussed the possibility of a joint Kazakh-US military staff exercise in Kazakhstan with US vice president Albert... MORE

Kazakhstan's foreign minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev yesterday also cited Gore as reassuring Kazakhstan that the US agrees that the Caspian Sea should have international legal status as a sea, giving each coastal state the right to demarcate its own sector and independently to arrange for the... MORE

Tiraspol media announced on October 30, that the Congress of People's Deputies to the local Soviets of all levels voted unanimously to call a referendum on December 24 on Transdniester's accession in its own right to the CIS. Voters will be called upon to approve... MORE

A new round of Georgian-Abkhaz negotiations began in Moscow today after Russia partially lifted the blockade of Abkhazia's capital Sukhumi by Russia's Black Sea coast guard. Moreover, according to Abkhaz prime minister Gennady Gagulia, Moscow has apparently agreed that Abkhaz, and not Georgian, military units... MORE