In a message to the Russian Duma, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and the Bosnian Serb commander, General Ratko Mladic, praised Boris Yeltsin for his opposition to NATO air strikes and called on Russia to "use its great possibilities" to influence the situation in Bosnia.... MORE

On Monday and Tuesday, Russia continued its campaign against NATO's military action in Bosnia. Defense Minister Pavel Grachev repeated in a telephone conversation with U.S. Defense Minister William Perry Russia's threat to "reassess" it membership in NATO's Partnership For Peace program if NATO continues its... MORE

In Ashgabat September 9, the presidents of Turkmenistan and Pakistan, Saparmurad Niyazov and Farooq Leghari, confirmed their interest in a joint project to build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan to Pakistan. International financing would be sought for the 1,400 kilometer pipeline with an... MORE

At a ministerial-level meeting which opened September 9 in Ashgabat, delegations of Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Iran began discussions on creating a trilateral clearing system which would cover Turkmen gas supplies to Ukraine, Ukrainian industrial exports to Iran, and supplies of Iranian goods to Turkmenkistan. The... MORE

At the second meeting of the Japan-Turkmenistan Economic Cooperation Commission, held in Ashgabat September 8, the Turkmen side offered eight oil and gas fields, reportedly adding up to 40,000 square kilometers, for joint exploration and development. Turkmen enterprises have reported oil and gas finds in... MORE

Tajik president Emomali Rakhmonov's spokesman told a Dushanbe briefing September 8 that Boris Yeltsin's and Viktor Chernomyrdin's talks with Rakhmonov in the Kremlin September 6 and 7 resulted in the following decisions: additional measures to enhance defense of the Tajik-Afghan border, described as a CIS... MORE

Turkish chamber of commerce president Yalim Erez arrived September 8 in Dagestan, at the head of a delegation of 35 Turkish businessmen and officials. Erez, who was introduced to the press as an adviser to Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, told a news conference in Dagestan's... MORE

On Georgian radio September 10, state leader Eduard Shevardnadze confirmed National Bank president Nodar Djavakhishvili's September 8 surprise announcement of the imminent introduction of Georgia's national currency, the lari. According to Djavakhishvili the new currency, printed for Georgia in France, will be introduced before the... MORE

Another round of Armenia-Karabakh-Azerbaijan negotiations on the Karabakh conflict, held in Moscow from September 3 through 9 in the framework of OSCE's Minsk group under Russian and Finnish mediation, ended without results. The sides discussed a basic political agreement and other documents on a cessation... MORE

The Karabakh republic's government has appointed a head of administration of the Kashatak district, renamed the Lachin raion, which is the part of Azerbaijan which, before it was captured, separated Karabakh from Armenia. The appointment formalizes Karabakh's incorporation of Lachin at the same time as... MORE