The Russian defense ministry will send 160 servicemen to Angola as part of the UN peacekeeping forces there, Interfax reported June 11. Moscow Sees Improvement in Estonia's Handling of Local Russians.

Russian deputy foreign minister told Interfax June 9 that Moscow's pressure on Estonia's new government had led the latter to improve "somewhat" the conditions of Russians living there. But the same day, expelled Zhirinovsky activist Petr Rozhok complained that the Russian foreign ministry had not... MORE

Russians from Estonia and Latvia are in Moscow to help organize a constituent congress of a new Council of Compatriots to protect ethnic Russians living outside the Russian Federation, BNS reported June 9. This body, backed by the Duma Committee for CIS Affairs, will join... MORE

No Belarusian bureaucrat will be paid until all pensioners have been, bureaucrats will have to work longer hours, and anyone failing to pay the general population their checks on time will face criminal sanctions, Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko said June 9, according to Itar-Tass. Lukashenko... MORE

Georgy Tabunshchik, 55, a former communist functionary who has become a businessman, won a June 11 runoff to become the first baskan (leader) of the Gagauz autonomous region in Moldova, Basarpress reported June 12. Tabunshchik favors close ties with Kishinev. The Gagauz were given territorial... MORE

The secret terrorist organization DRO was set up by Western intelligence services as part of their plan to split Armenia from Russia, Armenian opposition leader Ashot Manucharyan told Segodnya June 9. It was not established by the Armenian Dashnak organization, as Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian... MORE

Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation has proposed the construction of a 4200-mile, $8.4 billion pipeline from Turkmenistan to Japan via China, Turkmenpress reported June 9. The project, which must overcome many obstacles including certain Russian opposition, would enrich Turkmenistan and allow Ashkhabad to solidify its independence. Russians... MORE

Arguing that "the Afghan war is continuing in Tajikistan," Moskovskaya pravda on June 9 said that Russia was having to carry all the burden because the Tajiks were doing nothing to help themselves. On June 10, Itar-Tass reported that Russian border guards there had killed... MORE

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksii II will visit Alma-Ata and Karaganda later this month on the invitation of Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Krasnaya zvezda said June 9. An article in Kommersant-Daily the same day said that Aleksii is deeply troubled by his inability to influence the... MORE

Last week, a missile launched from a Russian submarine carried mail from the Barents Sea to Kamchatka, Itar-Tass reported June 9. The 3480-mile trip took only 30 minutes, and the 1270 specially franked letters were delivered in record time. This was Moscow's first use of... MORE