The Armenianauthorities have reached agreement with both Turkmenistan andGeorgia to regularize gas deliveries to Yerevan, Armenian mediareported August 16. Earlier, Armenia had had to pay Turkmenistanfor gas delivered to the Georgian border even if the Georgiansthen took the gas out of the pipeline for their... MORE

Armenianswho want to emigrate are paying up to $1500 to justice ministryofficials have their passport nationality changed from "Armenian"to "Jewish," Golos Armenii reported August 16.

Moskovskykomsomolets suggested August 18 that Azerbaijani presidentHeydar Aliyev has used reports of coups against him to crack downon all of Azerbaijani society. The paper said that the latestAzerbaijani "coups" have two remarkable things in common:they "all get uncovered before they happen" and theyall are linked... MORE

The United NationsSecurity Council said that Abkhaz efforts to block the returnof Georgian refugees were "totally unacceptable," Russianradio reported August 18. The Council statement said that therehad been little progress in resolving the conflict and that Abkhaziamust allow the refugees to return. Kazakhstan Protests Chinese... MORE

The Ukrainianjustice ministry has refused to register the Ukrainian nationalistgroup UNA-UNSO, Russian radio reported August 19. That group,based primarily in the Western Ukraine, had dispatched some ofits members to fight in Chechnya and had clashed with Ukrainianpolice during the funeral of a Ukrainian churchman earlier... MORE

The CrimeanTatar Adalet ("Justice") party held its first congressin Simferopol August 19, Russian and Ukrainian media reported. The party, which seeks Crimean autonomy within Ukraine and therestoration of Islamic shariat law on that peninsula, failed toattract most of the region's more prominent Crimean Tatar activists.And... MORE

The State Bank of Latvia hassuspended the activities of the Doma Bank but has agreed to givethat bank

Russian entrepreneurspurchased more than 4000 cars in Lithuania during June for resalein Russia, BNS reported August 17. The Russian businessmen saidthat they earned on average $1400 from every such transaction.

The Belarusian security service told Moscow's Echoradio August 19 that workers on strike in the Minsk subway were"paid agents of certain Western forces," including theAmerican labor organization AFL-CIO. The country's KGB said thatthe strike had been possible only because the West had pumpedmoney into the... MORE

Estonian president Lennart Meri has conferredthe Grand Cross of Terra Mariana posthumously on Robert Frasure,the first American ambassador to Estonia who died in an accidentnear Sarajevo August 19, Meri's office announced in a press releaseof that date. Noting that he and Estonia had lost a... MORE