Although Yerevan officials said June 19 that the most recent pipeline breakdown had been repaired, they nonetheless were forced to reduce the amount of electric power available to the population to only one hour a day, Noyan Tapan news agency reported June 20. In the... MORE

More than 90 percent of the industrial firms in Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan region have stopped working since Iran turned off electric power to the region because it was unable to pay its bills, Turan news agency reported June 15. As a result, the agency said, unemployment... MORE

Some 900 trains are now waiting to head north from Azerbaijan into Russia, Turan news agency reported June 15. Russian border guards have slowed their progress as they conduct searches for drugs and arms. Russia-Kazakhstan Ties Seen Leading to "Eurasian Union."

Kazakhstan's deputy premier Nigmatzhan Isingarin told Alma-Aty radio June 19 that his country's economic dependence on Russia left it with no option but close bilateral cooperation. Among the recent steps in this direction were the January 1995 accords ending tariffs on the "internal" Russian-Kazakhstan border... MORE

The Tajik government and the Tajik opposition have prepared lists of prisoners to be exchanged under the terms of their agreement in Alma-Aty, Russian radio said June 19. The radio cited Itar-Tass for its report. Another Result of the Dollar's Decline?

While 10 percent of Americans said that they would agree to permanent celibacy in exchange for $1 million, not one of 50 Russian men or 50 Russian women polled by Penthouse in Moscow would agree to do so, Trud reported May 27. The Monitor is... MORE

Talks between Russian and Chechen officials will continue June 20, Russian radio reported, with both the OSCE coordinators and the Chechens saying they were pleased with the progress in the first session June 19. Meanwhile, the caravan of buses carrying the Chechen fighters, and 137... MORE

The Russian media on June 19-20 attacked the Russian government for its handling of the Budennovsk hostage crisis. Segodnya on June 19 complained that the government had yielded too much, but Russian radio and television featured former hostages who complained about Moscow's willingness to use... MORE

Three Chechen commanders died in a firefight near the village of Assinovskoye June 19, Moscow's Echo radio reported. Meanwhile, four Russian border guards and 20 Chechen fighters died in a fight near the Daghestan border. Both these fights took place as the cease-fire was going... MORE

Russia's central bank cut interest rates from 195 percent to 180 percent to slow the rise of the ruble against the dollar and other major currencies, Moscow radio reported June 20. Tatyana Paramonova, the acting head of the bank, had earlier denied reports that the... MORE