For the first time, theEuropean Union has invited the three Baltic presidents to the nextsummit of that body, BNS reported May 29. To be held in Cannes in June,that meeting will also attract the leaders of eight other candidatestates. Only six candidate states were represented... MORE

Russian foreign ministryofficials sharply criticized the Estonian parliament for demanding alinkage between ratification of the 1994 troop withdrawal accords andRussian concessions on border issues, BNS reported May 26. They alsocriticized some Estonian legislators for planning to vote for the troopwithdrawal accord without approving the agreement... MORE

Massivewithdrawals of Russian funds from Latvia led to the collapse of theBaltija Bank, a Moscow paper said May 23. Delovoy mir said that Russiandepositors were angry about Latvia's destruction of part of the Skrundaradar site and what it said were Riga's anti-Russian policies. The factthat... MORE

Although Belarusianpresident Aleksandr Lukashenko did take part in the second round ofvoting May 28, only slightly more than 100 additional members ofparliament were elected, leaving the parliament without a quorum, Minskradio reported. Low voter turn-out--less than the 50 percentrequired--invalidated many races. Among the losers: former... MORE

During a brief session atthe Minsk CIS summit, the presidents of Ukraine and the RussianFederation agreed to meet June 9 in Sochi to discuss the future of theBlack Sea fleet, Interfax reported May 26. Yeltsin has beenincreasingly critical of the Ukrainian position and argued at... MORE

OSCE special envoy Istvan Gyarmati saidin Kishinev May 26 that Moscow must pull its 14th Army out of Moldova'sTransdniestr region "as soon as possible and in an organized way,"Moldovan radio reported. Gyarmati said that the withdrawal should bemonitored by the OSCE. Gagauz Autonomy Elects First... MORE

The 150,000 Gagauz, aTurkic-speaking Christian minority in southern Moldova, on May 28elected Georgy Tabanshchik "bashkan," or leader, of the new autonomousregion established for the Gagauz in January 1995, Basarpress reportedMay 29. The Gagauz voters also elected a parliament which includesrepresentatives of four different parties. Azerbaijan... MORE

Baku will receive $430 million inWorld Bank loans this year and can count on additional support in thefuture because of its economic policies, according to a World Bankpress release. But everything is not rosy in Azerbaijan: one-sixth ofits population consists of refugees from the Karabakh... MORE

Russian Federal Security Servicedirector Sergei Stepashin will visit Baku in the next two weeks to seekagreement on joint border guards, the Turan news agency reported May24. But Azerbaijani officials said they would not discuss this issue,only agreements on fighting crime. At the same time, Baku... MORE

Although the CIS presidents voted at Minskto extend the peacekeeping mandate in Tajikistan, their patience wasclearly wearing thin, Interfax reported. Only the seven countries whoare members of the CIS defense agreement participated in the decision,which extended the mandate and named a new, Russian commander there,Lt.... MORE