Russia is ready to relax the tax burden and reserve requirements imposed on commercial banks. Last month these constraints precipitated a banking crisis. In the future, according to First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, the government will allow private banks a flexible reserve requirement, and... MORE

. Russia's Federal Security Service denied that it has any connections with Igor Georgadze, accused by Tbilisi of masterminding the abortive assassination attempt on Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze last month. Shevardnadze and other Georgian officials have said that the FSB had links to the Georgian... MORE

The chief of the Directorate for Control of Arms Trade and Nuclear Proliferation of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Lt. General Gennady Evstafiev, said that Western accusations about contraband of fissionable materials from Russia, particularly to Germany, are "fabrications" intended to squeeze Russia out of... MORE

. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zaveryukha, Russia's top agricultural official, yesterday denied media reports that Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin would discuss buying grain or ask for another grain loan during his October 4-6 visit to Canada. "The matter has not yet been raised by either... MORE

Russia expressed "deep regret" yesterday over France's nuclear test in the Pacific. A Foreign Ministry statement said: "Such actions do not further the strengthening of the regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the creation of a favorable atmosphere for a speedy completion... MORE

Russia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will to leave for Belgrade Wednesday for talks with Serb President Slobodan Milosevic, and possibly with the Bosnian Serb leaders. A high ranking Russian diplomat said that in the current context, there is nothing unusual about Russian contacts... MORE

President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan has signed a new law pursuant to which Kazakhstan will hold elections for a new two-chamber parliament on December 5 and 9. Nazarbayev has ruled by decree since parliament was dissolved last spring. Coal Miners Strike in Ukraine.

Virtually all of Ukraine's coal mines were shut down on Monday by a miners strike. Trade union leaders said that in the coal-rich eastern and central regions only 14 of 226 mines remained in production. The miners are demanding payment of long overdue wages. Prominent... MORE

. One of Moscow's best-known daily newspapers, the five-year-old Nezavisimaya Gazeta, reappeared on Tuesday after a gap of nearly five months and a bitter internal battle between its editor and his critics. The winner of that struggle, founder Vitaly Tretyakov, said he now had financial... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin returned from his vacation in Sochi and met in Moscow with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. The two discussed a broad range of issues, including NATO expansion, Bosnia, Chechnya, and Chernomyrdin's upcoming visit to Canada. (1) The meeting took place in the wake... MORE