Former Estonian prime minister Mart Laar said that the new Estonian government would continue the economic reforms that he had launched; there would be no shift to the left as some have feared, he told BNS May 10. But in Lithuania, on the other hand,... MORE

Estonian authorities arrested two men who were trying to sell five kilograms of highly-enriched U-238 for $45,500, BNS said May 10. Estonian authorities said that they did not yet know where the nuclear material had come from but suspected that it had been smuggled out... MORE

Leaders of Latvia's defense forces will visit a Michigan national guard training facility May 11-20, BNS reported May 10. This visit is but the latest of the increasing contacts between state national guards in the US and the 15 post-Soviet states. Russian Planes Violate Lithuanian... MORE

Planes from Kaliningrad routinely violate Lithuanian airspace, Lithuanian defense minister Linas Linkevicius told BNS May 10, but Vilnius lacks the resources to deal with them. His comments came as the Lithuanian defense forces staged a mock violation in order to test their readiness to respond.... MORE

Claiming that any government can get 80% of the information it needs by reading the foreign press, the chief of Lithuania's state security service said that his men were engaged in doing precisely that. Jurgis Jurgiailis said that Vilnius lacked the funds to do anything... MORE

President Aleksandr Lukashenko has charged the chairman of the Constitutional Court will illegal involvement in political activity. Kommersant-daily on May 7 pointed out that these charges against Justice Valery Tikhin came after the court had begun to consider the constitutionality of Lukashenkov's dismissal of Narodnaya... MORE

Gazprom spokesmen told Moscow television May 10 that Ukraine will pay its bills to the Russian energy concern by issuing new state bonds. This step--announced as President Clinton heads for Kiev--would put Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine on a "strictly dependable" basis, the energy giant... MORE

Karabakh authorities freed 15 Azerbaijani prisoners of war May 9, and Yerevan said it would free 23 more, Golos Armenii and Interfax reported May 9. Earlier, Baku had promised that it would release the 70 Armenian prisoners of war it holds. This mutual exchange could... MORE

Itar-Tass reported May 10 that Russian border guards had killed three men trying to infiltrate into Tajikistan and have helped power rising concerns in Moscow about defending the external borders of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Rossiiskaya gazeta noted on May 6 than the Russian... MORE

Not only has the former Soviet dictator received much praise during the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of V-E Day, he now has a new medal, Moscow's Ekho radio reported May 8. Some 13,000 Russian veterans had refused to accept the Yeltsin government anniversary medal... MORE