Writing in the June 10 Segodnya, political commentator Mikhail Leontyev said that the Yeltsin-Kuchma agreement on the division of the Black Sea Fleet was a sham because it was based on the assumption that Russia and Ukraine are two different nations. Leontyev said that Russian... MORE

Azerbaijan's foreign ministry released a statement June 9 saying that Baku welcomed Armenia's decision to attend the June 15 Helsinki round of OSCE-sponsored talks on the Karabakh situation and will itself send a full delegation, Itar-Tass said June 10. Iran Pushes to Restart Caspian-Black Sea... MORE

Iran's deputy transportation minister urged Armenia to allow the rail line in Nakhichevan to reopen and thus provide a link between the Caspian and Black seas, the Aragil news service reported June 6. He said that Iran would put pressure on Azerbaijan to agree. Even... MORE

Only ten enterprises in Armenia have been privatized so far, Armenian news agencies reported June 10. And as a result, most people are holding off from using the privatization certificates that the government had distributed. So far, only six percent of these vouchers have been... MORE

Petr Shirishov, chairman of the Russian Duma's defense and security committee, met with Afghan leaders in Kabul June 12, Russian radio reported. Shirishov said that Moscow wanted a peaceful settlement to the Tajik conflict and hoped to reopen its embassy in Kabul. Shirishov dismissed as... MORE

Pravda Ukrainy on May 30 reported the following anecdote. Near the entrance to the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet, someone has put up a sign: "A people's deputy will sell his vote. Price by agreement." The Monitor is a publication of the Jamestown Foundation. It is researched... MORE

Russian commanders continued to press into the mountains over the weekend although their progress was slowed by bad weather and fierce resistance. The Chechen resistance is now concentrated in four southern villages, the most important of which is Shatoi, and Russian commanders say that the... MORE

Russian president Yeltsin and Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma reached a new accord on the fate of the Black Sea fleet during their meeting in Sochi June 9. But as in the case of the three earlier agreements on this issue, many questions remain unresolved--including such... MORE

In a wide-ranging interview in the June 9 Izvestiya, Russian president Boris Yeltsin said that as of this independence day (June 12) Russia will have recovered much that she had earlier lost both at home and abroad. He said that Russia would manage to convert... MORE

Russian defense minister Pavel Grachev failed to show up at a NATO political meeting June 9 because he had to attend the Russian-Ukrainian summit on the Black Sea fleet. Nor were any of his deputies present. Instead, Russia was represented by its ambassador in Brussels,... MORE