Reflecting differences in their histories and current concerns, the six former Soviet republics which are predominantly Islamic split over whether to support Washington's calls for an embargo against Iran. Uzbekistan supported the US position, Tajikistan rejected it, the other Central Asian countries have yet to... MORE

Fresh from his victory in the April 28 referendum that extended his term to the year 2000, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev called for a constitutional convention in June, Moscow radio reported May 5. That body would prepare a new constitution to be ratified in a... MORE

Speaking in Orenburg, Russian nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said that former Soviet president Gorbachev should be deciding whether he wants to be confined to Lefortovo prison or some other penal institution rather than whether he should run for president, Rossiiskaya gazeta said May 4. Zhirinovsky... MORE

Fighting in Grozny continued overnight making a mockery of both the Russian cease-fire and the Russian-imposed curfew there, Itar-Tass said May 4. Tass said that the latest attacks bring the number of ceasefire violations since April 28 to 92, and Interfax reported that at least... MORE

Deputy Foreign Minister Albert Chernyshev told Interfax May 3 that Russia would go ahead with its planned sale despite American objections. "We are completely right in this case," he concluded. In the April 29 Business World, commentator Vladimir Simonov said that there were only three... MORE

A car bomb killed at least three people in the northern Russian city of Murmansk May 3, Itar-Tass reported. While the service suggested no motive, this attack, like that against an ammunition dump in the Russian Far East in April 4, may be connected with... MORE

Federal Security Service director Sergei Stepashin has submitted to Yeltsin a proposed statute for his organization, Moskovsky komsomolets reported April 29. Under its provisions, FSS operatives would serve in Russian embassies abroad. Two countries--the US and German--have already agreed to receive these officials, and a... MORE

New tariffs on imported foodstuffs will lead to higher incomes for Russian farmers but higher prices for Russian consumers, BWW (no. 16) reported. Such a pattern, the paper suggested, would drive much of the politics in the parliamentary elections scheduled for later this year. Moscow... MORE

"Inconsistent" Russian policies have undercut the operations of Russia's ten free economic zones, Moscow radio reported May 2. First, Moscow granted these regions special tax and customs exemptions and then shortly thereafter lifted them. Among the hardest hit is Kaliningrad, the radio said. The Second... MORE

The State Property Committee has announced a three-part program for the second phase of privatization: some 7,000 enterprises are to be sold at auction, the shares of a second group of firms will be given to national commercial banks, and for a third group--consisting of... MORE