Estonian President Lennart Meri said July 28 thathe was against linking the approval of the 1994 Russian troopwithdrawal agreement to Moscow's acknowledgment of the 1920 TartuPeace treaty and the borders that earlier accord specifies, Interfaxand BNS reported July 28. His comments came as other Estonianpoliticians,... MORE

Latvia has issued citizenshipand passports to 300 residents of Latvia who earlier had beenclassed as non-citizens, BNS and Interfax reported July 28. Thisis the first time that has happened under the current citizenshiplaw. Lukashenko Sees West as Key to Solving Belarusian Crisis.

BelarusianPresident Aleksandr Lukashenko said that "if the West keepsits promises and pursues a stable policy toward Belarus, we willbe able to get out of our crisis much more quickly," Interfaxreported July 28. In other comments, Lukashenko said that hiscountry's independence was the best basis for... MORE

If the Russian Pension Fund does not receive some 1.1 trillionrubles which the Russian government owes it for operations sofar this year, the fund will not be able to pay seven to eightmillion elderly Russians their pensions, Interfax reported July28.

Two-thirdsof the residents of Orenburg blame Boris Yeltsin for their troubles,36 percent blame defense minister Pavel Grachev, and 32 percentblame Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, according to anAcademy of Sciences poll reported by Moscow radio July 29. Significantlyperhaps, 83 percent of the city's residents could not... MORE

Universal Pictures has announced that it will restrict thedistribution of its new movie "Water World" in Russiabecause video pirates have begun to sell copies of the film twoweeks before its American premier, RIA-Novosti reported July 30.Russian video pirates currently earn some $800 million a yearfrom... MORE

Aninstitute at the Russian Academy of Sciences said that one Russianin five does not earn enough to buy basic foods and that 45 percentof Russians spend virtually all their income in order to eat,Interfax reported July 30. Even fewer Russians will be able toafford to... MORE

Russiandistilleries will produce roughly the same amount of alcoholicbeverages in 1995 that they put on the market last year, Interfaxreported July 28. Half of Russian Officers Won't Be Paid This Month.

TheRussian defense ministry's budget office said that it will beunable to pay 50 percent of the country's serving officers inJuly, Moscow's Echo radio reported July 27. 7-8 Million Pensioners May Not Receive Their Money in July.

A group ofuniversity students in the southern Russian city of Novocherkasskhas taken the Russian defense ministry to court to force it tolive up to its promises to allow them to serve as officers aftergraduation, NTV reported July 28. The army had said it would doso,... MORE