After several days of demonstrations, the faculty-student strike committee in Chisinau postponed a rally scheduled for October 20 until October 23. The crowds, which for the first two days had numbered 7,000-8,000, had dwindled to 3,000-5,000, and the trade unions refused to join in what... MORE

Warning of "severe measures" against participants in future mass actions that disturb the peace, Ukraine's MVD wasted little time in reacting to large-scale workers' demonstrations held October 19 in Kiev and other localities. (14) Two members of the Ukrainian National Army, a radical nationalist group... MORE

In an effort to evade actual and threatened restriction by the Belarus government, the opposition press is arranging printing facilities in Lithuania. The Belarus opposition newspaper, Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, is being printed in Vilnius by the Lietuvos Rytas publishing house, which belongs to Lithuania's leading... MORE

Metropolitan Filaret, Ukraine's most prominent religious leader, was elected on October 20 as patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He succeeds Patriarch Volodymyr, whose death in July led to street clashes when state authorities refused to let him be buried in St. Sofia Cathedral. Friday's... MORE

On the eve of his departure for the United States and South America, President Leonid Kuchma told a group regional officials that the "difficult times" in Ukraine will last for another year. Kuchma cautioned against making populist decisions that could lead to more inflation. (10)... MORE

Anatoly Lukyanov, leader of the communist group in the State Duma, announced on October 20 that the Russian Communist Party plans to sue Boris Yeltsin for defamation. Lukyanov was responding to the president's remarks of the previous day, when he told members of the press... MORE

Ukrainian officials said at briefings in Kiev and Moscow that Ukraine has completed the reduction of its armored-personnel-carrier and combat-aviation inventories to levels mandated by the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. Battle tanks will be down to quota levels by month's end. But Mykola... MORE

According to Nikolai Ryabov, head of Russia's election commission, the Federal Security Service (FSB) is investigating charges that Anatoly Kuntsevich, a leading chemical-weapons expert, smuggled 1,760 pounds of "poisonous military substances" to the Middle East. Ryabov told journalists on Saturday that he learned of the... MORE

Economics Minister Yevgeny Yasin told an international conference on the Russian capital and investment market Friday that Russia could absorb $200-300 billion in foreign investment over the next 10-15 years. Yasin also said his ministry sees no need to revamp the taxation system to make... MORE

On Friday, Russia's Duma voted by a large majority to ask Boris Yeltsin to submit a plan for Russia-Belarus integration to both of the Russian Federal Assembly's chambers. The resolution includes a request that Yeltsin empower an official delegation to hold talks with Belarus on... MORE