Moscow has forwarded to Pyongyang a draft friendship treaty which reportedly does not contain military clauses. The document is meant to replace the 1961 treaty, due to expire in September 1996, which did contain military assistance commitments. Explaining the change, Russia's foreign ministry said that... MORE

On September 7, Yeltsin signed into law the Duma's recent bill allowing Russian companies and businessmen registered in Russia to trade with rump Yugoslavia if the trading involves the provision of humanitarian goods and services to that country. The law can provide a major avenue... MORE

On September 8, in his first full-scale news conference in almost a year, President Boris Yeltsin linked NATO's retaliatory strikes against the Bosnian Serbs to the alliance's planned enlargement, predicting: "This [bombing] is the first sign of what could happen when NATO comes right up... MORE

. At his September 8 news conference, Yeltsin accused Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma of dishonesty for refusing to proceed with the partition of the Black Sea Fleet. "We sign the agreement, several days pass, and he refuses to fulfill it. How can one act like... MORE

Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze, who survived an assassination attempt August 29 and will run for president in the elections scheduled for November, told an interviewer that his candidacy is meant to protect Georgia against three internal threats to its existence: from Georgian "ultranationalists whose actions... MORE

Japan's Export-Import Bank has announced that it is granting Kazakhstan a loan of 166 million dollars, as part of an IMF/WB financing package to support economic reforms in that country. This week a Japanese governmental and business delegation discussed possible investment in Kyrgyzstan with that... MORE

A new round of negotiations among Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Karabakh, co-chaired by Russian and Finnish diplomats in the framework of the OSCE's Minsk group, has been in progress since September 4 in Moscow. The negotiations focus on a draft overall political agreement, the security and... MORE

The two-day meeting of Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian parliamentary leaders in St. Petersburg on peaceful solutions to conflicts in the Caucasus failed to issue a planned joint statement "To the Head of States and the Peoples of the Caucasus" on September 5. Instead, they reconvened... MORE

The Ukrainian ministry of justice has announced that it has annulled the legal registration of the Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA) and its paramilitary wing, Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNSO) on the grounds that they advocate and practice violence. The authorities had long hesitated to move against... MORE

The chairman of the Russian supreme court, Vladimir Tumanov, stated that the law on the formation of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, will most likely be declared unconstitutional. President Boris Yeltsin objected to the law, already passed by both houses... MORE