. Deputyforeign minister Albert Chernyshev told RIA-Novosti July 12 thatMoscow welcomes President Clinton's decision to restore full diplomaticties with Vietnam. In other diplomatic news, unnamed Russian diplomatsdisagreed on the NATO air strike which failed to stop a BosnianSerb advance, while the Russian foreign ministry formally... MORE

.Gerhard Frey, head of the radical-nationalist German People'sUnion, conferred with Vladimir Zhirinovsky in Moscow and tolda news conference that "no European politician demonstratessuch friendliness to Germany as Zhirinovsky," Interfax reportedJuly 12. The GPU has hosted Zhirinovsky several times in Germany.Frey also praised Russia as democratic... MORE

.Sergei Karaganov, the influential chairman of the Russian Councilon Foreign Policy and Defense, said Russia must pursue a policymodeled on that of French leader Charles de Gaulle in order toextract concessions from the West. In an article published inthe July 12 Segodnya, Karaganov said that... MORE

. In a television interview July 11,foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev denied rumors that he was aboutto resign, claimed that the Chechen "events" representa proof of Russian democracy, and denounced Russian nationalistVladimir Zhirinovsky for frightening off Western investment andfor providing the West with an excuse for... MORE

. Having turned to the courts over Chechnya, the RussianDuma now has asked the Constitutional Court to issue a rulingon the validity of the Russian Federation Supreme Soviet October1948 decision, making Sevastopol an administrative entity separatefrom the rest of the Crimea, and a July 1993... MORE

. Boris Yeltsinis making a rapid recovery and will resume his normal schedulenext week, Presidential Administration chief Sergei Filatov toldMoscow television July 12. And in yet another testimony to thefact that no event is without political implications, Kommersant-Dailyon July 12 suggested that Yeltsin's illness had... MORE

.As hearings continued on a Russian parliamentary appeal concerningthe legality of Boris Yeltsin's orders that launched the Russianintervention in Chechnya, the court's chief judge Vladimir Tumanovsaid that he did not see any violation of the constitution inYeltsin's actions, Russian television reported July 12. He addedthat... MORE

. After a longsession on July 12 that reduced the number of versions of a politicalagreement from four to two, the Grozny peace talks recessed forone day July 13 to allow both sides to consult with their governments,Itar-Tass reported. According to the July 12 Komsomolskayapravda,... MORE

In orderto prevent ethnic conflicts in Uzbekistan, President Islam Karimovhas established a special council for ethnic and interregionalaffairs, Interfax reported July 11. The new body will be headedby Gulom Aliyev, who had been head of the country's national securityservices. For the Russian Phone Company, the... MORE

The Russian communications ministry has announcedthat beginning July 15, calls from Russia to Estonia, Latvia,and Lithuania will be billed at international rather than domesticrates. The Baltic governments are certain to welcome this latestrecognition of their status; ethnic Russians living there butwho have relatives in the... MORE