President Boris Yeltsin has issued a decree regulating the privatization of state-owned enterprises. The decree says that all state enterprises wishing to sell shares must have the personal approval of the President, and an appropriate resolution from the government. Yeltsin's economic advisor Aleksandr Livshits explained... MORE

Lithuania's foreign minister said on Wednesday that Lithuania remains determined to join NATO despite reports that Russia is preparing a new military doctrine that calls for moving troops into the Baltic republics should they become members of the military alliance. Similarly, Estonia's foreign minister said... MORE

Russia's drought-hit 1995 grain harvest will be the lowest in three decades but the state has no cash to pay for imports, Agriculture Minister Alexander Nazarchuk said on Tuesday. While visiting Ottawa, Russia's top agriculture official said drought losses probably meant Russia would have to... MORE

Officials of Russia's Water Resources State Committee (Roskomvod) deny that they intend to reactivate plans to divert Siberian rivers in order to feed the Aral Sea. Roskomvod chairman Nikolai Mikheev was believed to have raised that that prospect in his speech to the recent international... MORE

Georgian head of state Eduard Shevardnadze on October 1 banned the Rescue Corps, paramilitary arm of the political group Mkhedrioni. This organization is linked to organized crime and has been a major factor in Georgia's turmoil of recent years. Shevardnadze and Internal Affairs Minister, Lt.... MORE

U.S. president Bill Clinton "supports the idea of pumping Azerbaijani oil through two pipelines, via Russia and via Transcaucasia," according to the Itar-Tass account of Clinton's 25-minute telephone conversation October 2 with Azeri president Haidar Aliev. U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kauzlarich told a Baku... MORE

Latvia's legislative elections, held September 30 and October 1 (see yesterday's Monitor), recorded a 72 percent turnout and produced a parliament comprised of 9 parties which cleared the 5 percent barrier. With virtually all votes counted, the Central Electoral Commission announced this tentative make up... MORE

Transdniester military and education officials say that pursuant to a recent agreement, military academies in the Russia are training cadets for Transdniester's army. Over 50 Transdniester cadets have been admitted this autumn to Russian military academies. Transdniester believes that such training will help meet its... MORE

Russian military expert Anton Surikov of the Institute of Defense Research said that if NATO expands eastward the Kremlin may be forced to reoccupy the Baltic states to prevent them from being incorporated into the Western alliance. Surikov observed that his position was nothing new,... MORE

Pyotr Yanchev, head of the Balkar Trading Company, has been arrested by the FSB and accused of fraud and tax evasion in connection with the export of 10 million tons of oil. Several senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, the State Customs... MORE