Police arrested31 people who were participating in a hunger strike to urge aboycott of the August 30 referendum on the constitution proposedby Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russian media reported.Most of the protesters appear to have been ethnic Russians. Groupswith similar goals said they would stage... MORE

Dividedbetween Russia and Azerbaijan in 1992, the Caspian sea flotillais no longer able to cope with its mission of deterring smuggling,Severnyi Kavkaz (no. 31) said. Conditions on the Russianside are especially bad: Russian officers no longer want localyouths to serve--"they do not understand discipline,"the officers... MORE

Ukraine attractedmore than $500 million in foreign investment during the firsthalf of 1995, an increase of almost 25 percent over the same perioda year ago, Kiev radio reported August 18. The largest sourcesof such investments were Germany and the United States, each ofwhich contributed approximately... MORE

Ukrainian nationalists who participate in wars of nationalliberation in Abkhazia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Chechnya are doingso of their own free will, much as Lord Byron and Ernest Hemingwaydid in earlier conflicts, one of their leaders told Ostankinotelevision August 20. Divided Caspian Flotilla No Longer an... MORE

Ukrainian television officials have agreed to allowMoscow's ORT station to return to the first from the third Ukrainianchannel if Moscow pays all its debts for retransmission of theservice, Ostankino television reported August 17. Such a shiftwould allow more Russian speakers in Ukraine to see Russian-languagetelevision.... MORE

Officialunemployment in Belarus is now 2 percent, but a senior Belarusiandemographic specialist told Russian television August 21 thatthe actual figure was at least 10 times that. Valentina Ladod'ko,the chief of the Administration of the Organization of the Workplaceat the country's Occupational Center, said that the... MORE

Belarusianpresident Aleksandr Lukashenko said that striking drivers at theMinsk subway were trying to undermine his government and enjoyedthe support of Poland's Solidarity movement, Russian and Belarusianmedia reported August 21. He ordered the interior ministry tobegin criminal proceedings against the leaders of the strike andsent in... MORE

A three-dayinternational conference of specialists on nuclear issues heldat Paldiski, Estonia, concluded that the Russian clean-up of thereactor site there had been successful, Eesti Paevaleht reportedAugust 19. Lukashenko Ban on Post-Soviet Histories Draws Protest.

Tenleading Belarusian writers published an open letter in the August18 Zvyazda to protest Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko'sdecision to use only Soviet-era history textbooks in the country'sschools. The writers said that his decision was "an attemptto turn back the ride of history and an attack on... MORE

The Estonian government is split and most Estonians are outragedby a draft plan to license all publications in Estonia in whichforeign capital has been invested, Eesti Sonumid reportedAugust 19. Because virtually all major newspapers and journalshave some foreign capital invested in them, the plan, if... MORE