. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's information department chief said that last week's "additional" staff-level negotiations with Romania over the draft interstate treaty have failed. The Romanian side refuses to unambiguously recognize existing Romanian-Ukrainian borders, which Kiev wants consecrated in the treaty. Bucharest also insists on... MORE

According to the official spokesman of Russia's 14th Army stationed in the Koenigsberg/Kaliningrad region, the tactical missile test-launched near Lithuania's border last Friday October 27 (see Monitor, October 30) was a Tochka high-precision battlefield missile with a range of 70 kilometers. The missile is used... MORE

In his current incarnation as deputy chairman of the Duma's International Relations committee, Oleg Bogomolov criticized Russia's current policy toward the countries of East-Central Europe at a Duma hearing on the subject. Bogomolov felt that Russia's relations with those countries stumble on the issue of... MORE

On October 31,

Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas has refuted the remarks attributed to him by Russia's RIA news agency, according to which Brazauskas is not keen on joining NATO and favors Boris Yeltsin's proposals for an all-European security structure at NATO's expense. Those allegations have been given wide... MORE

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and top Gazprom and Nuclear Energy Ministry officials conferred in Moscow with Slovakia's prime minister Vladimir Meciar. Meciar reaffirmed Slovakia's "principled position to join NATO," at the same time opposing a redivision of Europe in the process of enlarging the Alliance.... MORE

Chechnya's Supreme Soviet yesterday elected Doku Zavgayev as "leader of the republic," in addition to the position of prime minister the same body gave him last week; and appointed Beslan Gantemirov as deputy prime minister. According to Zavgayev's office, the post of "leader" is equivalent... MORE

Aviation Marshal (ret.) Yevgeny Shaposhnikov is the new head of the restructured Russian International Airlines-- Aeroflot. The airline has been turned into a joint-stock company whose controlling stockholder is the state. Shaposhnikov emphasized in taking over the post that he is "nobody's protege, it is... MORE

. Although the parliamentary election campaign is still far from its peak, some of its participants are already looking ahead to next year's presidential election. Yabloko leader and economic reformer Grigory Yavlinsky has formally declared his candidacy: "Regardless of how this matter [registration of Yabloko's... MORE

Kazakhstan yesterday announced that it would sell off the Karaganda Metallurgical Plant (Karmet), a Soviet-era giant producer of steel and rolled goods. The plant has been declared bankrupt. A special government commission is assessing the plant's value preparatory to inviting purchase bids from foreign investors.... MORE