President Leonid Kuchma said that Kiev will not pull its 1200 peace keepers out of Croatia until the UN explains why it has asked for their withdrawal, various European papers reported May 3. Kuchma said in Rome that he could not understand why Ukraine was... MORE

More than 11,000 guns, about 2.5 million pieces of ammunition, and several tons of high explosives have been confiscated from thieves who have taken these materials from ammunition dumps in Ukraine, Kievskiye vedomosti reported April 6. Kiev Expels Russian Spy.

Ukrainian authorities have expelled a Russian national who they said was spying for the Arabs in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian radio reported May 3. Moscow News on "Caucasian Banana Republics."

After serving for more than a year in an acting capacity, Fuad Guliyev was confirmed by the parliament as prime minister May 2. Three days earlier, the speaker of the parliament Razul Guliyev confirmed that new elections to that body will take place earlier, Tass... MORE

Armenian prime minister Hrant Bagratian said April 28 that he and his government oppose recent proposals for an Armenian-Russian confederation, the BBC reported May 1. He said that the supporters of such a confederation, whom he identified as mostly communists, would trade the state sovereignty... MORE

In the face of intensified fighting and increasing Russian incursions into Afghanistan, Dushanbe called on all parties to end the fighting, Moscow radio reported May 2. Such calls have seldom had any impact in the past. "Dostoevsky's Time Has Passed."

With these words, the director of Moscow's Karusel Casino said none of the new Russians now bets so much that suicide is an option, even though the average bets for such people is in the $10,000 to $30,000 range, BWW (no. 16) reported. But for... MORE

Fighting between Russian and Chechen forces continued to intensify in both Grozny and several eastern regions of Chechnya, with mounting casualties on both sides. Russian TV reported that both the cease-fire and the curfew in Grozny had broken down and that as many as 1,000... MORE

The State Department said May 2 that Moscow had agreed to review its plans to sell Iran equipment that could be used to develop nuclear weapons, but Russian foreign minister Kozyrev told CNN the same day that Washington had blown this issue "out of proportion,"... MORE

Some 46 percent of all Russians believe that the United States now has a completely or somewhat negative influence on Russia, a US News & World Report press release reported April 28. Only 38 percent saw America's influence more positively. These numbers were based on... MORE