In a statement released September 4, Estonian Defense Minister Andrus Oovel urged that NATO's replace its currently-vague political statements on NATO enlargement with a firm commitment which includes a time table and a list of the criteria which future NATO members must meet. The process... MORE

On a three-day visit to Lithuania, Leonid Kuchma's presidential adiministration chief Dmitro Tabachnik conferred with Lithuania's president Algirdas Brazauskas, Prime Minister Adolfas Slezevicius, and Foreign Minister Povylas Gylys on strengthening bilateral economic and political cooperation. The Lithuanians continued to urge that the Council of Europe... MORE

At an extraordinary congress in Chisinau on September 2, the Agrarian Democratic Party--which dominates parliament and government--attacked President Mircea Snegur's bid to establish personal rule as undemocratic and potentially destabilizing. The congress was marked by speeches and resolutions condemning the presidential camp for resorting to... MORE

On September 3 and 4, during his first official trip abroad as British Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind visited Ukrainie and welcomed the recent improvements in relations between Kiev and Moscow. He said "mature Russian-Ukrainian relations" are a major prerequisite to Europe's security, Interfax-Ukraine reported. At... MORE

Preparations are under way for disbanding the Russian Army's 126th Division, based in Crimea and attached to the Black Sea Fleet as a coastal defense force, the Russian Defense Ministry's daily Krasnaya Zvezda confirmed September 1. The measure, to be completed by November 16, had... MORE

In a statement inaugurating the Belarus Military Academy, Lukashenka said that the country's future officers should be trained at home, rather than abroad (evidently meaning Russia) in order to acquire a "profound awareness of their country's problems and needs." Lukashenka condemned "ultraright nationalists," but noted... MORE

The newly-elected head of Sverdlovsk region's administration, Eduard Rossel, told Moscow media September 2 that he and Yeltsin agreed during their recent meeting to negotiate a power-sharing treaty between the federal government and the region. The treaty should include a provision increasing the percentage of... MORE

Ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky told his party's congress that he would go into the election with his 1993 election list. Zhirinovsky said that his party is "entering into the political struggle against Russia's enslavement by the West," and that if he became president, his main... MORE

The reformist Yabloko bloc's conference nominated its present leaders, Yavlinsky and Vladimir Lukin, as its top election candidates. But it replaced Yuri Boldyrev, one of the top founding leaders who has left the movement, with Yavlinsky's close associate, economist Tatyana Yarygina. United Industrial Party vicechairman... MORE

The nationalist bloc organized around the Congress of Russian Communities has confirmed its top candidates: former Security Council secretary Yuri Skokov, Gen. Lebed, former foreign economic relations minister Sergei Glazyev, and the former chief of the Duma's analytical center, economist Ludmila Vartazarova, and Congress Dmitri... MORE