Concerned that some in the West might agree to include Estoniaor Latvia, but not Lithuania, into institutions such as the EUand NATO, Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas told BNS August30 that the West should take the three in as a group. Officialsin the other two Baltic... MORE

Representativesfrom nine countries, including Russia and the US, are meetingin the Latvian capital to discuss the status of Jewish culturein the modern world, Russian television reported August 29. Moscow Bank Denies Involvement In Collapse Of Baltija Bank.

Officials at the Moscow-based Intertek bank told BNS August 30that they had not purchased a large part of the portfolio of theBaltija Bank in Riga and then used that to bring down the Latvianbank. The Russian bankers said they were surprised by the "politicaluproar" caused... MORE

Lukoil willbe using Baltic ports less and less in the coming months, itsdirector Vagit Alikperov told BNS August 30. As a result, therevenues of the three countries from transit fees will drop dramatically.Meanwhile, Lukoil officials said that they would finance the explorationof an undersea oil... MORE

Estonian foreign minister Rijvo Sinijarv told Novoyevremya (no. 33) that he "would not compare the Tartutreaty to a cornerstone. It was the act by which Russia recognizedthe birth of an independent state." While Sinijarv's statementdoes not represent a retreat from Tallinn's insistence that Moscowrecognize the... MORE

Russian border guards have thwarted another attempt to smugglea large quantity of non-ferrous metals to China, Pravda reportedAugust 30. The metal was hidden on a Chinese ship at the Vaninoport near the Far Eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk. Moscow Acknowledges Holding American Fliers In Korean... MORE

Russian historian Gen. Dmitry Volkogonov told a Moscow press conferenceAugust 30 that available evidence suggests that the Soviet authoritieshad in fact held American fliers in a Soviet hospital during theKorean conflict. Earlier the Soviet and Russian governments haddenied doing so. Volkogonov also said that most... MORE

In itsAugust 25 issue, Komsomolskaya pravda said that formerRussian security minister Viktor Barannikov did not die from aheart attack on June 20 as the authorities claimed but was murderedin order to prevent him from identifying more secret KGB informers.The paper suggested that Col. Gen. Yury... MORE

Russian Muslims convened a conference in Moscow August30 to consider how to expand contacts with each other and withMuslims living abroad, Russian television reported August 30.Participants were especially eager to develop ties with Islamiceducational centers abroad so that Russian Muslims could attendthem in greater numbers.... MORE

Utro Rossii(no. 34) cited the director of the Russian Institute of ContemporaryPolitics A. Mekhanik as arguing that the rising tide of crimein Russia and the anger of ethnic Russians living in former Sovietrepublics may combine to bring about a "Spanish" variantfor Russian development. The paper... MORE