The Russian justice ministry has given official status to a Moscow-based group of North Caucasians who want to promote stability in their home region, Rossiiskaya gazeta reported June 3. Recently, the Russian government has shown greater willingness to recognize public organizations interested in promoting non-Russian... MORE

Tallinn expelled Russian nationalist Petr Rozhok for the second time June 4, BNS reported June 6. Estonian authorities had expelled him March 24 for anti-Semitic statements and anti-Estonian activities. They allowed him back into the country last week to attend his court appeal on that... MORE

Two officers of the failed Baltija Bank deliberately sabotaged its operations through their sales of assets to Russian bankers, Latvian prosecutors told BNS June 6. Officials said that the bank's losses could top $360 million. The failure of the Baltija bank has sent shock waves... MORE

The June 9 Ukrainian-Russian summit meeting in Sochi is unlikely to achieve a breakthrough on the central question of a base for the Black Sea Fleet, Kommersant-Daily said June 6. Indeed, the Ukrainians may very well carry out their threat to declare the fleet a... MORE

Ukrainian electrification minister Vilen Semenovsky told Kommersant-Daily June 6 that Russia is likely to be a major investor as Ukraine privatizes its energy sector. Semenovsky said that Kiev would welcome Russian investments in this area. Kishinev Calls for Western Pressure on Moscow.

At the North Atlantic Assembly meeting in Budapest, Moldovan parliament vice chairman Nivolae Andronic urged the West to press Moscow to withdraw the 14th Russian Army from Moldova's Transdniestr region, Basarpress said June 5. Andronic also backed NATO expansion, dismissing the arguments of those who... MORE

For those interested in high risk investments, few opportunities are likely to top this. The government of Nagono-Karabakh, which has been at the center of a war between Armenian and Azerbaijan for more than five years, has called on Western firms to invest in the... MORE

Tajik rebels based in Afghanistan have stepped up their attacks on Russian border guards in Tajikistan, Moscow television reported June 5. To deal with what the television reporter said was a growing threat, the Russian border guards have brought in a helicopter unit to allow... MORE

More than 500,000 ethnic Russians left the Central Asian countries in 1994, the Moscow weekly Vek reported in its June 2-8 issue: 250,000 from Kazakhstan, 100,000 each from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and 50,000 each from Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Vek argued that future Russian leaders will... MORE

The World Bank has granted Bishkek $680 million in grants in recognition of Kyrgyzstan's progress on economic reform, Finansovye izvestiya reported June 6. Some 64 percent of the republic's enterprises have been privatized, and the country's GDP is expected to show a small increase in... MORE