The Estonian governmenthas approved plans to provide another tranche of capital for theNorth Estonian Bank, BNS reported July 25. The bank has lost $3.5million so far this year, and the government already had providedit with additional funds and claimed a 42 percent ownership share.Other Estonian... MORE

Estonian policeseized 1.7 kilograms of radioactive radium from two men they saidwere part of a larger smuggling operation, BNS reported July 25.Police officials said that the radium 226 had been brought intoEstonia "from another country" and was going to be soldto a foreign group for... MORE

Russia's independenttelevision channel NTV will open an office in Rostov to coverevents in the North Caucasus and Crimea, Kommersant-Daily reportedJuly 25. Later the station plans to set up offices in the FarEast and Yekaterinburg. In the past, Moscow television has reportedregional news from Moscow; this... MORE

TheFederal Security Service (FSB) and the Main Protection Directorate(GUO) have issued new rules for the movement of cars and limousinescarrying members of the political elite through the streets ofMoscow, Moskovsky komsomolets reported July 25. The newrules go even further than Soviet-era ones in protecting the... MORE

Despite government claims to the contrary, the policies ofthe Russian Central Bank have not contributed to financial stabilityso far, and are unlikely to do so in the future, the directorof the Institute of Economic Analysis told Russian radio July25. Andrei Illarionov said that the Central... MORE

Russian efforts to export more oil, a leading source of hardcurrency earnings, may lead to a shortage of oil products insideRussia, PIA-Interfax reported July 25. In order to prevent that,Russian oil enterprises have called on Moscow to limit exportsto the former Soviet republics beginning in... MORE

At the end of theirweekend conference, the Russian monarchists resolved to createan Orthodox-Monarchic Brotherhood to combat the spread of "variouscults and heretical confessions," and to defend Russian OrthodoxChristians from attacks by such groups, Interfax reported July25. The Brotherhood will not take part in the elections,... MORE

Sergei Yegorov, the presidentof the Association of Russian Banks, told Moscow's Mayak radioJuly 25 that he very much doubted the authorities would ever catchthe murderers of banker Oleg Kantor. Yegorov pointed out thatKantor was the 22nd banker to be killed in the last 18 monthsand... MORE

Polls reportedin the July 25 Moskovskaya pravda show an increase in thenumber of Moscow residents who say they plan to vote in the Decemberparliamentary elections. In February, only 38 percent said theywould take part. A repeat poll of 786 Muscovites done in Julyfound that 49... MORE

Agroup of diehard Soviet era communist groups will stage protestactions on the anniversaries of the August 1991 coup, the October1993 suppression of the Supreme Soviet, and the 1917 October revolutionto protest the "anti-people" Yeltsin regime, its organizerstold Interfax July 25. Some of these groups have... MORE