Ryabov also told reporters on October 23 that Viktor Chernomyrdin should take leave of his duties as prime minister for at least a week if he wants to campaign for his movement, "Russia is Our Home." Combining the affairs of state with election campaigning is... MORE

French president Jacques Chirac said on Monday that the United States might have to keep troops in Bosnia to enforce a peace accord longer than the one year the Clinton administration has told Congress. Russia Denies Grachev Will Visit Iran Soon.

The spokeswoman for Russian defense minister Pavel Grachev denied last week's Itar-Tass report which said that Grachev would visit Iran this year. "The minister has no firm plans to visit Iran," Yelena Agapova told Reuters. "He might go there but definitely not this year." Chechnya... MORE

The two main figures whom Moscow installed as leaders in Chechnya have been replaced. Umar Avturkhanov and Salambek Khadzhiyev are leaving their posts as chairman of the National Accord Committee and prime minister of the National Revival Government, respectively. Avturkhanov is in line for appointment... MORE

US defense secretary Perry and Russian defense minister Grachev will meet in Washington on Friday to discuss Bosnia, and presumably to flesh out the details of what the presidents may have agreed to. Chirac: US May Have to Stay Longer in Bosnia.

President Clinton and Russian president Boris Yeltsin announced after a generally chummy summit on Monday that they had agreed to cooperate in policing a Bosnian peace accord. "We spent the vast majority of our time discussing Bosnia and we reached complete agreement about how we... MORE

The regular autumn meeting of CIS heads of state has been rescheduled for the third time. The new tentative date is December 8. But Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma promptly announced that he would be unable to attend due to scheduled official visits to China and... MORE

Georgian head of state Eduard Shevardnadze told a Tbilisi news conference that he opposes the idea of creating a CIS military bloc as a counterbalance to NATO. "I am categorically against the creation of another military bloc. It could only lead to another cold war... MORE

Georgia's head of state has announced that he would not attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York because of terrorist threats which he traced to Igor Georgadze, the former chief of Georgian State Security. Shevardnadze said Georgadze and his accomplices "are backed by fairly... MORE

The Moscow daily Segodnya published October 20 a recent study by the Moscow-based Institute for Defense Studies regarding a possible Russian military invasion of the Baltic states. Parts of that document had been widely cited in the Russian press in the context of possible Russian... MORE