On August 15the Boeing Defense and Space Group and Russia's State Researchand Production Space Center signed August 15 a $190 million contractto build and launch by 1997 a space module, the first sectionof the $30 billion, six-man Alpha space station which is due forcompletion by... MORE

The Talibanforce holding seven Russian air crewmen and their airplane inKandahar is willing to negotiate their release if Moscow providesdetailed information on what Taliban believes to be some 60,000Afghans deported to Russian territory during the Soviet occupationof Afghanistan. Russian diplomats who contacted the Taliban captorsreported... MORE

ARomanian foreign ministry spokesman repeated to UPI August 16that his country supports Russia's proposals to lift the internationaleconomic sanctions against rump Yugoslavia. He added that representativesof Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece will meet next week in Athensto discuss the situation. All three countries have been on... MORE

The Kalmyk Republic'slegislative assembly voted August 14 to extend President KirsanIlyumzhinov's mandate through the year 2000, Russian TV reportedAugust 14. Proposals for a lifetime, or for a 10-year extension,did not pass. But proponents of the more limited term indicatedthat they could support further extensions later... MORE

Bosnianprime minister Haris Silajdzic told Reuters August 15 that hehas written to his Russian counterpart Viktor Chernomyrdin, requestingRussian intercession in Belgrade to stop the ethnic cleansingof Moslems and Croats around Banja Luka by Bosnian Serbs. Silajdzicdrew attention to the forcible separation of adult males fromtheir... MORE

. Prominent human rightscampaigner Sergei Kovalev told Moscow's Echo radio August 15that the arrest of former KGB Major Viktor Orekhov constitutesa vendetta of his former colleagues in retaliation for Orekhov'scooperation with human rights groups during the Brezhnev period.Orekhov was sentenced in July to 3 years... MORE

. First DeputyPrime Minister Oleg Soskovets intends to expand Russia's armsexports, Itar-Tass reported August 15. According to Soskovets,Russian arms exports amounted to only $4 billion in 1994, comparedto France's $11 billion. Soskovets criticized the state arms exportcompany "Rosvooruzhenie" for malperformance. He calledfor transferring arms exports... MORE

Federal Security Service officialsclaimed to the August 15 Pravda and to Interfax that Fred Cuny,the American relief specialist missing in Chechnya since April9, has tentatively been identified as being in Dzhokhar Dudayev'sentourage. The officials indicated that they suspect Cuny of performingintelligence tasks for the US... MORE

The spokesmanof the Federal Security Service (FSB) Administration in Daghestanclaimed to the August 15 Kommersant-Daily that Turkey's IntelligenceService (MIT) is using the territory of Azerbaijan to infiltrateDaghestan, and to make it into a base for its operations in Chechnya.The spokesman claimed that the MIT has... MORE

A Russian militarycourt has sentenced an officer of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Major Vladimir Lavrentiev, to 10 years in prison for "hightreason," Russian TV reported August 15. Lavrentiev, whohad served as a counterintelligence officer in the Western Groupof Forces, admitted to having been recruited... MORE