Meanwhile according to a recent Pravda report, aircraft said to belong to the Tajik Defense Ministry have conducted "additional" air strikes against villages believed to harbor resistance units in Tavil-Dara district in the Pamir foothills. "Particularly heavy strikes" were reportedly delivered against Lairon, in the... MORE

The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan yesterday upheld the Central Electoral Commission's decision to refuse registration of the Musavat party's slate of candidates for the upcoming legislative elections. The CEC found that approximately 10 percent of the voters' signatures in support of the slate were not... MORE

Greek defense minister Gerasimos Arsenis and his Russian counterpart, Pavel Grachev, signed the first ever military cooperation agreement yesterday at a special ceremony in the Greek Defense Ministry. "The agreement turns a new page in relations between Greece and Russia and the prospects of cooperation... MORE

A senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said on background yesterday that Russia would be unable to comply fully with the obligation to reduce its land forces in Crimea in accordance with the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE). The official argued that those land... MORE

According to the Russian command, members of the Grozny municipal police attacked a Russian guard post at an underpass on the road to Grozny airport with gunfire and grenades, wounding several Russian soldiers. The Russian command lodged an "official protest." (6) The "Municipal police" force... MORE

"Thousands" (by the Russian authorities' admission) of men and women rallied in front of the destroyed presidential palace in Grozny, carrying national flags and portraits of Dzhokhar Dudayev, to mark October 27, the fourth anniversary of Dudayev's election as president of Chechnya. Placards and chants... MORE

On orders from Chechen chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen forces released October 28 the Russian prisoners taken in their October 24 attack near Vedeno, which killed at least 18 Russian soldiers and destroyed five APCs. On the 29th, amid the local population's triumphant cheers,... MORE

On October 11, the Duma passed a bill which requires that the heads of administration in Russia's constituent regions, who at present are ex-officio members of the Federation Council, be elected by popular vote. On October 25, the Federation Council vetoed that bill. On October... MORE

Defense Minister Pavel Grachev said yesterday that Moscow had agreed to send two battalions to Bosnia as part of a new peacekeeping force planned by NATO. He said Russia was still negotiating with the United States a formula so that Russian troops would not be... MORE

Russia's Western partners in the international Contact Group on the former Yugoslavia have opposed any lifting next Wednesday of U.N. sanctions on Serbia. They rejected Moscow's proposal to lift the sanctions at the start of peace talks on Bosnia at a US airbase in Ohio.... MORE