. Although it had a successfulspring draft, the Ukrainian army is undermanned by almost 20 percentand will decline to 450,000 by the end of 1995 and to 350,000within three years, Ukrainian military officials told Interfax-UkraineJuly 10. Transdniestr Troops Entrenching in Bendery

. In the lastfew days, several hundred Transdniestr soldiers have added tofortification works and gun emplacements around their base inthe city of Bendery, the right-bank bridgehead of the left-bank"Dniestr republic." Transdniestr forces have also steppedup patrolling of the city, Basapress reported July 12. They tookover... MORE

. Russiancrews cleaning up the Paldiski naval nuclear reactor trainingsite at Paldiski, near Estonia's capital of Tallinn, are on scheduleto hand the base over to the Estonians by September 30, BNS reportedJuly 7. The Russian crews have cleaned all but 35 cubic metersof the 700... MORE

. Governmentattempts to restrict the activities of the country's banks willonly exacerbate Belarus' year-old banking crisis, Yevhen Kupchin,chairman of the country's Association of Commercial Banks, toldFIA-Interfax July 11. The banks have been losing money--$12 millionin May alone--and now face government fines intended to limittheir operations,... MORE

. Ever since the Moscow authorities introduced thisterm in October 1993, persons from the North Caucasus, or eventhose who look like North Caucasians, have suffered from discrimination,beatings, and even death in the Russian Federation, the Daghestannewspaper Makhachkalinskiye izvestiya reported June 23.The paper cited several cases... MORE

.Life expectancy for Russian males dropped again last year to 57,the lowest since World War II, Russian radio reported July 11.As a result, almost half of young Russian men may not surviveto retirement. Russian Diplomat: No More Apologies for Molotov-Ribbentrop

.Despite suggestions that relations between Moscow and Tallinnwere improving, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Krylovsaid that Russia had already apologized for signing the Molotov-Ribbentroppact which cost the Baltic states their independence, and thatMoscow won't apologize again, BNS reported July 12. While in Tallinn,Krylov pressed the... MORE

. That figure was reported by the Trade and IndustryChamber of the Russian Federation to Moscow radio July 12. Thechamber said that almost half of all businessmen had had somecontacts with the mafia over the last 12 months. Russia's Prison "Archipelago" Still Extensive

.The Russian government maintains 731 penal institutions, Rossiiskayagazeta reported July 8, adding that 929,000 people populatethis "archipelago." The paper noted that the inmatesare increasingly violent, and now regularly attack prison guards. Germany Disputes Russian Claims about Return of Art after WWII

.On July 10, the German embassy in Moscow issued a press releasesaying that Germany had returned more than 500,000 pieces of artseized by the German army in the USSR, not just 88 as Russianofficials had claimed on June 29, Interfax reported. Finno-Ugric Peoples Increase Contacts