In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, Moldovan foreign minister Mihai Popov cited resolutions by the OSCE and other international fora calling for the "complete, orderly and unconditional withdrawal" of Russian troops from Moldova. He neither presented this demand in Moldova´s own name nor... MORE

According to Foreign Minister Hennadii Udovenko, Ukraine is seriously concerned by the openly stated intentions of some of its western neighbors to accept nuclear weapons on their territories in peacetime, once they join NATO. Udovenko told a Kiev briefing, in the presence of Czech foreign... MORE

The Russian Federal Service for Monitoring the Insurance Business canceled the licenses of 15 Russian insurance companies and suspended the licenses of 27 more for violations of the country's insurance code and default on obligations to their clients. Among the companies affected were 12 based... MORE

A Moscow City Duma deputy, wanted by the MVD for misappropriation of public funds, has apparently fled the country. Svetlana Zhuravleva, who was a saleswoman before being elected to the City Duma, allegedly stole tens of millions of dollars from financial institutions and escaped to... MORE

At a news conference in Vilnius, Lithuanian foreign minister Povilas Gylys called for equal treatment of the candidacies of Central European and Baltic countries for accession to NATO, urging the alliance to apply the concept of "indivisible security" to the entire area. The Baltic States´... MORE

Commercial banks are set to lend the government three trillion rubles for grain purchase, according to First Deputy Minister of Agriculture Vladimir Shcherbak. Shcherbak said the purchase would be made from the Federal Food Fund, but he admitted his ministry had so far received only... MORE

The defrauded creditors and investors of 53 Russian commercial institutions held a congress in Moscow and announced a campaign for restoration of depositors' losses. The chairman of the depositors' movement, Vyacheslav Makarov, said that in Moscow alone, financial losses from swindles and pyramid schemes have... MORE

The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksei II has given his blessing to the young draftees of 1995. In his address to the new soldiers, the Patriarch called on them "to serve the Motherland with valor and dignity by defending it from internal and... MORE

Citing information available to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), a spokesman for that agency said that forces loyal to Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev have prepared "new provocations and terrorist attacks." The spokesman warned that these attacks could resemble the attempted assassinations of the commander... MORE

Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Yarov on Monday led a delegation to the second session of the India-Russian Joint Commission in Delhi. He told reporters he expects trade with India to rise sharply over the next year as the two longtime allies strengthen business relations which... MORE