Boris Yeltsin rejected the parliament's foreign trade bill because its protectionist provisions violate customs rules, his spokesman Sergei Medvedev told Russian radio June 8. The same day, Yeltsin vetoed legislation on defense orders, saying that bill violated the Russian constitution. The real reason for his... MORE

Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Lebed, the controversial commander of Russia's 14th Army in Moldova's Transdniestr region, said he would not be willing to take a post in the border guards, Russian television reported June 8. Itar-Tass had reported earlier the same day that Yeltsin was thinking... MORE

Too many Russians have decided that Poland's decision to prevent the opening of Radio Free Caucasus in Cracow means that Moscow need not worry about Chechen propaganda from Poland, Segodnya said June 7. In fact, the proposed radio constituted less than 5 percent of the... MORE

The Duma may soon pass the law giving special status to Kaliningrad because of fears that Russian nationalists and communists will gain ground there if the parliament does not act, Kommersant-Daily said June 8. The Russian government opposes the measure out of a concern that... MORE

A study by the Infomart agency says that foreigners have invested $3 billion in Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, Birzhevskie vedomosti (no. 23) reported. While cumulatively large, this figure works out to an average of less than a billion a year for... MORE

In order to defend the country's northern borders against smuggling and illegal exploitation of Russian resources, Moscow has established a special Arctic border guards unit, Moskovsky komsomolets reported June 7. The paper said that the new force will replace military units that had been in... MORE

The Russian military has begun to destroy the country's stocks of chemical weapons, Izvestiya said June 8. Many Russians are worried about whether this will be done in a safe manner. The military's disposal of missile fuel over the last several years has led to... MORE

Russia's constitutional court is attempting to decide whether a presidential decree is a normative act and thus subject to judicial review, Kommersant-Daily reported June 8. It will decide the matter in a minor case on Yeltsin's decision about a nuclear facility in Zheleznogorsk; its decision... MORE

Defense minister Pavel Grachev said that the Russian military will be divided into three groups--land forces, the navy and the air force--rather than the current five, Russian radio reported June 7. Zhirinovsky: NATO Involvement in Bosnia a Prelude To World War III.

Speaking to the Duma June 7, Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky said that any NATO involvement in Bosnia would be the opening salvo in the third world war, Moscow radio reported. CIS Air Defense to Be in Place by 1996.