The Belarusiangovernment will give special non-cash support for housing andutilities to the poorest fifth of the country, Interfax-West reportedAugust 1. Belgrade Welcomes Kiev's Offer to Mediate Bosnian Crisis.

1400 residents of the Russian capital have contracted diphtheriain 1995 and 75 of them have died, the city's health departmenttold Interfax August 1. That makes diphtheria, a disease thatcan be prevented by simple inoculation, the "most dangerous"disease in Moscow today, the health officials said. Russian... MORE

In exchangefor the Yakut authorities agreeing to pay their salaries and thecost of fueling their vehicles, soldiers from the Russian NorthEastern Border Guard District have agreed to guard the mines andwellheads in Sakha, Segodnya reported August 1. Such arrangementswith local governments help support these Russian... MORE

A senior Russian Gazprom officialwill visit Minsk August 2 to discuss the construction of the firststage of the Yamal-Western Europe gas pipeline, PIA reported August1. Meanwhile, Russian and Yakut firms completed their feasibilitystudy of a pipeline between Yakutia and South Korea, and GeorgianPresident Eduard Shevardnadze... MORE

The Russian prosecutors office has renewed charges againstIgor Bushnev, the alleged killer of Orthodox priest AleksandrMen, Moskovsky komsomolets reported August 1, even thoughBushnev was acquitted at an earlier trial. The paper suggestedthat this case represented part of an effort by prosecutors topacify a public increasingly... MORE

Newly appointed chairmanof the Russian Press Committee Ivan Laptev told Komsomlskayapravda July 29 that he would cut the committee's staff andtake a hard look at all decisions by his more liberal predecessorSergei Gryzunov. Moscow Again Reopens the Father Aleksandr Men Murder Case.

ViktorOrekhov, a KGB captain who was sentenced to jail in 1978 for providinginformation to dissidents on KGB plans to arrest them, has beensentenced by a Russian court for possessing an unregistered pistol,Moscow's Echo radio reported July 30. Orekhov's real crime undoubtedlywas his continuing efforts to... MORE

Boris Yeltsinhas named new Federal Security Service director Mikhail Barsukovto the Russian Security Council, Moscow media reported August1. Moskovsky komsomolets said that Barsukov's elevationwas part of a general effort by Yeltsin to gather "into asingle fist" all the security operations of the country. New Press... MORE

Valeriya Novodvorskaya, who made her name as the only politicalprisoner under Gorbachev, when she was arrested for denouncingthe Soviet leader for the January 1991 Vilnius killings, was calledinto the Moscow prosecutor's office and told she is under investigationfor slandering the Russian president, Moscow's Echo radio... MORE

Reflecting the increasingly nationalist mood in Moscow evenamong reformers, the Strategy think tank, which enjoys a reputationas progressive institution, has released a 200-page study thatsays Russia should become a nation state in which Russians areofficially recognized as the dominant group, Segodnya reportedAugust 1. The study... MORE