General Motors and the ELAZ automobileworks will sign a contract this June to produce up to 300,000 American cars ayear, Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets told Itar-Tass May 22. Most of thecars will be jeeps and will be assembled from US-made parts. Soskovets saidthat Moscow... MORE

Estonia and Latvia arelocked in a dispute over an island in the Gulf of Riga, Moskovskie novosti(no. 32) reported. Despite its extensive coverage of the small conflict, thepaper said outsiders should not get involved. But Latvia and Lithuania haveagreed to seek an agreement over their... MORE

According to the resultsof a Russian Minorities Research Center poll, only 8 percent of the ethnicRussians in Estonia believe that their rights are being violated, the BalticIndependent reported May 5-11. 93 percent said they would remain in Estonia,and only 4 percent were interested in obtaining... MORE

Despite pledges that it would not do so lest itimpose economic hardship, the Latvian government closed the Banka Baltija May22, BNS reported. The bank had run up huge deficits that the governmentultimately concluded it could not cover. Whether the bank's 500,000depositors will get some or... MORE

The European Union said it wouldgive Kiev $108 million now, and $254 million later, to help the Ukrainiangovernment cover its deficit and thus to stabilize its currency, but only ifthe Ukrainians continue with plans to close the Chernobyl nuclear powerstation, Kiev radio reported May 22.... MORE

Refugees from the Abkhazfighting have threatened to take up arms against the Georgian authorities,Moskovskie novosti reported May 23. As a result, Georgian President EduardShevardnadze has asked Moscow for assistance in controlling the situation.Any assistance would tighten Moscow's hold on that republic. Tbilisi's appealcame while General... MORE

The pipeline carrying gas fromTurkmenistan to Armenia was blown up for the ninth time in the last twoyears, Interfax reported May 22. Although the Russian news service said thatrepairs had been made, these attacks on the pipeline in Azerbaijani-dominatedregions of Georgia have meant that Armenians... MORE

Russian border guardsare demanding up to two million rubles for each train crossing theRussian-Azerbaijani border, Azerbaijani deputy premier Abbas Abbasov told theTuran News Agency May 19. As a result, there have been massive delays. Thesedemands for bribes may be part of Moscow's strategy to force... MORE

Pleading a "cold," Kazakhstan's presidentNursultan Nazarbayev said May 22 that he would not be able to attend the CISsummit in Minsk May 25. Kazakh radio said the country's vice president wouldattend in his place. That Nazarbayev--one of the leading advocates for closerties among the Commonwealth... MORE

Russian deputyforeign minister Albert Chrnyshev told Interfax May 22 that the April 20statements by the presidents of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan that these twocountries might pull their peace-keeping units from Tajikistan were theresult of emotions rather than reason. Chernyshev said that "all of us havesuffered losses... MORE