The Russian military said on Thursday it would retaliate against a group of Chechen rebels which it blames for killing 18 Russian servicemen in an ambush two days ago. A statement issued by the Russian military command in Chechnya urged local citizens to leave the... MORE

Itar-Tass reported today that Russian president Boris Yeltsin has been hospitalized with heart problems. Tass quoted Viktor Ilyushin, a senior aide to the 64-year-old Russian president, as saying that Yeltsin had suffered another ischaemic attack, similar to the one which sidelined him for about a... MORE

A regular round of Russian-mediated negotiations between Georgia and Abkhazia, scheduled to begin yesterday in Moscow, was postponed sine die when the Abkhaz side refused to participate. The Abkhaz were protesting against what they termed a "blockade" of Abkhazia's coast by Russian warships. (20) Three... MORE

A Russian Foreign Ministry official claimed yesterday that the European Union supports a project to route future oil from Kazakhstan's giant Tengiz field on the Caspian Sea to Russia, on its way to Western markets. The Russian official claimed that the E.U. is also prepared... MORE

According to an official of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) yesterday, the extradition of Georgia's former State Security chief Igor Georgadze "will not even be discussed" until Tbilisi shows "serious evidence" of Georgadze's involvement in the August 29 assassination attempt against head of state Eduard... MORE

The presidents of Armenia and Turkey, Levon Ter-Petrosian and Suleyman Demirel, met on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York October 24, reportedly at Ter-Petrosian's initiative. The meeting follows Armenian National Assembly chairman Babken Ararktsian's arrival on a visit to Istanbul. The... MORE

The teacher-student strike committee yesterday suspended the street protests, underway in Chisinau since October 18, until parliament takes up in early November president Mircea Snegur's constitutional initiative to change the official name of the native language from Moldovan to Romanian. Committee leaders said at their... MORE

Russian paratroopers yesterday killed a civilian and wounded others in the course of seizing control of Ingushetia's civilian airport in Sleptsovsk. The paratroopers landed from helicopters, shot their guns chaotically inside the airport, and held it for a few hours before leaving again, according to... MORE

Ukrainian deputy foreign minister Konstantin Grishchenko declared on Tuesday that his country is seeking Moscow's "immediate and legally-binding recognition" of Ukraine's border with Russia. (15) Barring that, said Grishchenko, Kiev will be forced to proceed unilaterally to define the border. The ministry official bespoke Ukrainian... MORE

Russian Communist Party chairman Gennady Zyuganov said in a recent interview that the new Duma "will not be homogenous, but it is important to create a national-patriotic majority in it". (13) With his party the current front-runner in opinion polls, the Communist leader also foresees... MORE