Despite his good meetings withPresident Clinton last week, the Ukrainian president is not happy withcontinuing Western pressure on Kiev, his press secretary told Ukrainian radioMay 15. "Ukraine is taking all the positive decisions, but unfortunately weare seeing no timely moves in our direction," Kuchma was... MORE

Although the Russian president has put offany visit to Kiev until the Crimean issue has been resolved, Boris Yeltsinwill meet with Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko later this monthafter the Minsk meeting of Commonwealth of Independent State Leaders,Segodnya reported May 13. Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma is... MORE

Ukrainian and Russian firms went headto head at the Abu Dhabi arms show, Trud reported May 11. Kiev offered thegas turbine-driven T-84, while Moscow demonstrated the diesel-driven T-80-U.The paper did not say which side had picked up orders. Former Azerbaijani Defense Chief Sentenced To Death.

Rahim Gaziyev, theAzerbaijani defense minister under ousted President Abulfaz Elcibey, wassentenced to death for his role in Azerbaijani losses to Armenia in 1993,Itar-Tass reported. Gaziyev was in charge when Baku lost the key cities ofShusha and Lachin. Tajik Fighting Resumes With A Vengeance.

Despite hopes that fighting inTajikistan would subside for the upcoming talks between the government andopposition, more lives were lost on both sides during the past three days.Itar-Tass reported that Tajik opposition forces had killed six Tajik interiortroops on May 13. More combatants died May 14... MORE

A citizens group in Ulyanovsk (formerly Simbirsk)wants the body of 1917 Russian Provisional Government leader AleksandrKerensky returned from New York for reburial in his native city, Trudreported April 27. The organizers said that they were concerned thatsupporters of V.I. Lenin, another native son, might protest... MORE

Promising "more vigorous measures" now that the "cease-fire" was over, Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachevordered new attacks May 12. (Russian commanders had complained that the ceasefire had given the Chechens time to regroup.) Interior troops were joined byelite paratroop units in a broad attack employing... MORE

Belarusian voters--but not PresidentAleksandr Lukashenko--went to the polls April 14 to elect a new parliament andto vote on four referenda items that will tie Belarus closer to Russia,Itar-Tass reported. Preliminary results of the parliamentary voting show only17 of the 260 seats were filled in the... MORE

The chairman of the Duma defense committee, SergeiYushenko, told a May 15 press conference that NATO expansion would poselittle threat to Russia and, in fact, would "weaken the alliance." He saidRussia should enter NATO as an "associate member." Earlier,Nezavisimayagazeta reported that President Clinton had forced... MORE

At the constituent congress of the "Russia is OurHome" electoral bloc, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin promised thatreforms would continue, but without the shocks of the past. Perhapssignificantly, however, he did not call for the extension of the moratoriumon fighting in Chechnya as at least one... MORE