Latest Monitor Articles

ANOTHER GENERAL GAINS HIGH PROFILE IN ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

Former MVD and KGB Maj. General Aleksandr Gurov has emerged as a leading figure in an electoral bloc he has helped form two months ago with former social security minister Ella Pamfilova and Duma deputy Vladimir Lysenko, both democratic reformers. In his public appearances Gurov... MORE

AUCTION OF SAKHALIN OIL PROJECT FAILS

. The international commercial tender for the development of the Sakhalin offshore oil fields known as "Sakhalin-4" has failed to produce a winner. The representative of the Sakhalin Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Geology, Petr Sadovnik, said that of the more than two dozen... MORE

FAPSI COMPUTERIZES RUSSIAN BUREAUCRACY.

Almost all Russian federal agencies will be linked in a computer network known as "System," which has been developed by the Federal Government's Communication and Information Agency (FAPSI). The network will contain all technical and administrative documents, as well as government directives and legal information... MORE

CHERNOMYRDIN SEEKS MORE SOUTH KOREAN INVESTMENT.

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said on arrival in Seoul September 28 for a three-day visit that the level of South Korean investment in Russia was short of Moscow's needs. He told a news conference that bilateral trade volume was expected to reach $3 billion this... MORE

RUSSIA ALSO SEEKS FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN KURILE ISLANDS.

Only a day after Russian coast guard ships fired on Japanese fishing boats close to the Kurile Islands, First Deputy Nationalities Minister Vladimir Kuramin said the islands would welcome foreign investment to help with a program of economic and social development next year. "The door... MORE

RYBKIN DENIES THAT HE WILL REPLACE KOZYREV.

Duma chairman Ivan Rybkin, in a Moscow press conference September 28, denied suggestions that Boris Yeltsin wants him to replace Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev. Rybkin said that he knows of nothing which would confirm press reports that Yeltsin is unofficially forming a new cabinet, but... MORE

RUSSIA HAS OWN REASONS FOR OPPOSING BOSNIAN SERB SECESSION.

Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev said on "MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour" September 27 that Russia opposes any move by the Bosnian Serbs to secede from Bosnia and unite with neighboring Serbia. Kozyrev reaffirmed Russia's full agreement with the Western members of the Contact Group in opposing Bosnian... MORE

MOBIL TO BEGIN OIL EXPLORATION IN KAZAKHSTAN.

Tulpar Munai, Ltd., a joint venture between Mobil and three Kazakh oil companies, announced September 28 that it has begun an oil exploration program on a 4.4 million acre block in northwestern Kazakhstan. After environmental and seismic surveys are finished, the first exploration could start... MORE

RUSSIAN TROOPS TRICKLE OUT OF CHECHNYA; POLITICAL TALKS SOUGHT.

The Russian military command announced in Grozny September 28 that 8,000 Interior Ministry troops and 5,000 Defense Ministry troops have been withdrawn from Chechnya. According to the deputy commander of Russian forces,Maj.-General Pavel Maslov, the pullout took place mainly from the Nozhai-Yurt area, in accordance... MORE

BELARUS RESUMES DESTRUCTION OF CONVENTIONAL ARMS.

Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko announced September 28 that his country had resumed the destruction of conventional weapons, called for in the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. Interfax reports that Lukashenko told a group of American businessmen in Minsk that he decided to resume... MORE