Intermittent exchange of gunfiretook place August 3, but Interfax reported August 4 that tensionswere easing in Grozny and throughout Chechnya. (The standoff betweenRussian forces and six Chechen fighters continued in neighboringDaghestan, Russian radio reported.) On August 3 the negotiationscontinued in three working groups--on disarmament, prisoner... MORE

Anyone interestedin catching a butterfly in Russia's Far East had better get alicense, Interfax-Eurasia reported August 2. Those who don't willhave to pay a fine of $10 to $100 and compensate the regionalgovernment for damage to the environment. The Monitor is a publication of the... MORE

Armenianauthorities arrested two more ARF Dashnak political activistswhom the government said were involved in terrorism, Pravdareported August 2. The Dashnak party disputes this claim,but the Moscow paper said that the latest two suspects had resistedarrest, wounding several police officers. Tbilisi Promotes Divisions within Meskhetian Movement.

Officialsof the Georgian government are willing to meet with the moderateMeskhetian Turks, but not with the more radical Meskhetian Vatanorganization, Russian radio reported August 2. Both groups wantTbilisi to allow the Meskhetians, who were deported by Stalinin 1944, to be allowed to return, but the... MORE

The commander ofRussian border guards in Tajikistan said he had "radio intercepts"showing that the Tajik opposition was preparing to launch attackson government forces, Russian radio reported August 2. Lt. Gen.Pavel Tarasenko said that some of the rebels planned to crossinto Tajikistan from Afghanistan, and that... MORE

Valery Yevnevich,who replaced Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Lebed as commander of Russianforces in Moldova's Transdniester region, was promoted to therank of lieutenant general August 2, NTV reported. Yevnevich'snew rank suggests that the replacement of the 14th Russian Armywith a "limited contingent of Russian forces" meansless than... MORE

Azerbaijani police said thatthey had discovered a plot to kill Azerbaijani President HeydarAliyev by blowing up a bridge on a highway the leader was to travel,Baku media reported August 2. The authorities blamed organizersof the March 1995 abortive coup for this latest action. Russians Continue... MORE

Russianborder guards continue to refuse to allow passage across the Azerbaijani-Russianborder to anyone who is not a citizen of one of these countries,Izvestiya reported August 2. As a result, a large numberof people remained in makeshift camps on both sides of the border.Moscow had imposed... MORE

Foreign ministry spokesman Tatyana Smirnova said thatthe Duma-imposed moratorium on adoptions by foreigners violatedthe UN Convention on Children's Rights and undermines Russia'sprestige, Vechernyaya Moskva reported July 28. Of the 101,244orphans registered in Russia in 1994, foreigners adopted only2,163; more than 25,000 were sent to the... MORE

In a letter to Estonian President Meri that was widely coveredin both the Estonian and Russian Media, US President Bill Clintonsaid that NATO expansion was an "uninterrupted and irreversible"process. Former Latvian KGB Boss Denies Using Violence.