Lt.-General Igor Georgadze, recently dismissed as Georgian State Security chief for plotting to assassinate Eduard Shevardnadze, emerged from his Moscow hideout onto the screen of Russian state television and in the pages of a mass-circulation weekly to attack Georgia's leader. Georgadze portrayed Shevardnadze as a... MORE

The defense ministers of Ukraine and Poland, Valery Shmariv and Zbigniew Okonski, have decided to create a joint peacekeeping battalion, coordinate air defenses, and meet at least once every six months. (13) The joint peacekeeping battalion is very likely intended as an embryo of larger... MORE

The official Kiev daily Nezavisimost published October 5 a confidential memorandum to President Leonid Kuchma from foreign minister Hennady Udovenko, assessing Boris Yeltsin's recent decree on Russia's policy toward the CIS countries. Some of Udovenko's conclusions: "Russia has no intention to build its relations with... MORE

The Duma voted of 286 to 0 a statement assailing the bill passed by the US House of Representatives, "On the freedom of Cuba and democratic solidarity," known as the Helms-Burton bill, designed to tighten international economic sanctions against the Castro regime. The Duma described... MORE

Russia's recently appointed ambassador to Moldova, Aleksandr Papkin, says in the current issue of the weekly Delovaya Gazeta (Chisinau) that Russian policy toward former Soviet countries has been "too moderate, lest it be accused of imperial ambitions." But Russia "will overcome guilt feelings" and "pursue... MORE

A senior defense spokesman earlier this week told Interfax in no uncertain terms that the ministry's oversight organs have not authorized Yakovlev aircraft design company to surrender to Lockheed-Martin the results of Russian R&D studies in the production of jump jets. The official was responding... MORE

Defense minister Pavel Grachev has come out against the Kremlin's current emphasis on political methods in dealing with Chechnya. "The political negotiations proceed slowly and highly unsuccessfully. They confirm our apprehension that the negotiating process is a [Chechen] tactical stratagem enabling them to build up... MORE

Russia's negotiator in Chechnya Arkady Volsky charges that approximately two trillion rubles allotted through Russian banks for reconstruction work in the republic has virtually disappeared without a trace. According to Volsky, 700 billion rubles of this sum are definitely identified as stolen, and the balance... MORE

Boris Yeltsin has reportedly ordered the GRU military intelligence and other intelligence agencies to step up operations in NATO countries. A Russian daily newspaper claims knowledge of orders to spy on NATO headquarters, specifically the office of NATO Secretary General Willi Claes, on nuclear forces,... MORE

On Thursday the Duma dropped the idea of debating the proposed motion on impeaching president Boris Yeltsin and the proposed no-confidence motion against the government of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin from its agenda. The impeachment proposal had been advanced by Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov,... MORE