Latvia's banking crisis will not spread to Estonia, the country's chief banker told BNS June 1. Bank of Estonia president Vahur Kraft said that there is no speculative money in Estonia, and that the presence of numerous foreign banks makes a crisis less likely. Meanwhile,... MORE

By a vote of 252 to 9, the Ukrainian parliament passed a resolution blocking President Leonid Kuchma's plans to hold a referendum on public confidence in himself and the parliament, Kiev radio reported June 1. This step, which the parliament may or may not be... MORE

NATO Secretary General Willy Claes told President Leonid Kuchma that Ukraine would have a "special relationship" with the Western defense alliance, Kiev radio said June 1. Claes did not say what this would consist of, but the very use of this term downgrades its uniqueness... MORE

Because it no longer receives adequate support from the state, the Ukrainian military industrial complex is increasingly involved in arms sales abroad, Finanosovye izvestiya reported May 30. The paper noted that only 12 countries in the world now spend a smaller percentage of their GDP... MORE

The Belarusian army will be reduced in size and brought into conformity with both NATO and CIS standards, Academician Yevgeny Babosov told Znamya yunosti May 12. Babosov heads the working group that is in charge of the reforms. His group faces some enormous challenges: officers... MORE

During a visit to Baku, Russian energy minister Yuri Safrannik said that any talks about the future of the Caspian were "unjustified," Segodnya reported June 1. His remarks suggested that Moscow would not press its argument that the Caspian must be characterized as a lake,... MORE

Tbilisi has agreed to reopen two old radar stations and anti-aircraft sites as part of its agreement with Moscow on Russian basing, Georgian radio said June 1. Russian military personnel will man these sites and train Georgians to operate them. Representatives of the Tajik government... MORE

Even as Moscow pushes Dushanbe to reach an agreement with the opposition, the Russian and Tajik governments have reached an agreement to jointly produce weapons at a Soviet-era arms factory in Tajikistan, Interfax reported May 31. Tajik president Imammali Rakhmonov's aides said that the arms... MORE

In response to a reader's query, Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Soloviev said that personnel on board Soviet spaceships--including an American astronaut--can see the horrors of the Chechen fighting, Argumenty i fakty (no. 20) reported. During the day, the explosions there appear as dark puffs; at night,... MORE

"Although we have decided to join the Partnership for Peace program, our position on NATO expansion remains unchanged: we are against it," President Boris Yeltsin told Moscow television May 31. At the signing, Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev said that NATO "must cease to be... MORE