On an official visit toGermany July 3 and 4, Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma and hisdelegation sought additional aid. They received assurances fromChancellor Helmut Kohl that "Ukrainians are not alone, andthat their German friends want their reforms to succeed,"German media and Interfax reported July 4. Kohl... MORE

Under a decree reportedby Ukrainian media July 4, President Leonid Kuchma has appointedRoman Shpek, Anatol Kinakh, Petro Sabluk, Vasyl Durdinets, andIvan Kuras as deputy prime ministers responsible for the economy, industry, agriculture, security and emergency affairs, and humanitarianissues respectively. Shpek, Kinakh, and Durdinets are new... MORE

A self- styled CrimeanTatar National Movement which rejects Tatar national demandsand supports Crimea's "integration into Russia" hasmade its appearance, at least in the pages of Moscow's Obshchayagazeta June 29-July 5. The CTNM is cited as believing thatthe Crimean Tatars were behind the recent violence. The... MORE

Moldovan parliament chairman Petru Lucinschi told the Councilof Europe's Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg that Moldova,which has just become the first CIS country to gain admissionto the CE, will support Russia's application for CE membership in the belief that a Russia accountable to international organizationsis preferable... MORE

Armenians will vote on a newconstitution and on a new parliament July 5, but the electionitself has been marred by charges that President Levon Ter-Petrosian has used a trumped-up case against a terrorist organizationto keep the largest opposition party off the ballot. Again onJuly 3-4,... MORE

In an appeal to Boris Yeltsin and Viktor Chernomyrdin, and ininterviews with Russian media July 3 and 4, Abkhaz leader VladislavArdzinba said that Russia's "economic blockade" ofhis region and Moscow's additional security measures at the Abkhaz-Chechen border had blocked the delivery of aid sent toAbkhazia... MORE

Russian commandersin Tajikistan charged July 4 that the Tajik government had failedto enforce the country's military draft or to prevent more than1,000 Tajik soldiers from deserting in recent months, Interfaxreported July 4. Meanwhile, Mazari Shodyev, commander of a resistanceunit in Tajikistan's Garm region, was killed... MORE

Fleshing outthe Uzbek president Islam Karimov's idea of a common market forCentral Asia, experts at the Uzbek Academy of Sciences havedrawn up a concept of economic integration of the region. Academyvice president Ibrahim Iskanderov told Interfax July 3 that theplan calls for coordinating reforms among... MORE

On a July 4 visitto Tehran, Turkmenistan president Sapurmurat Niyazov signed adeal which will allow his country to export gas through Iran, once financing for a new pipeline is found, Itar-Tass reported.Meanwhile, Niyazov's foreign minister, Boris Shikhmuradov saidthat Ashkhabat was not pursuing a foreign policy... MORE

Researchers from the Russianmeteorological committee and the Academy of Sciences have investigatedrecent press reports that Lenin's embalmed body was giving offsome kind of mysterious radiation to visitors to the Red Squaremausoleum, Pravda reported July 1. The investigation foundthat Lenin was not giving off any kind... MORE