On October 25, the Uzbek Islamist guerrillas operating in the Tajik-Kyrgyz border area handed over their main trump card--the four Japanese mining engineers whom they had seized, along with some Kyrgyz officers and civilians, on August 23 in Kyrgyzstan's Osh region. The Japanese arrived yesterday... MORE

Following an October 25 warning from President Boris Yeltsin about foot-dragging, the State Duma yesterday passed the first reading of the 2000 budget. As a concession to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) and other leftist factions in the Duma, the government agreed... MORE

Moscow has responded to the new conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by crying foul, claiming that the conditions are politically motivated and not feasible (Russian and Western press reports). But the Russian-IMF relationship has always revolved around politics, and political considerations have... MORE

Russia in early August seemed to be making progress in restoring its external creditworthiness. The first quarterly tranche of the IMF standby had added US$640 million to Russia's reserves, and a deal was concluded with the Paris Club of official creditors postponing some US$8.0 billion... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry this week lodged an official protest over what it charged is a concerted U.S. policy to block contracts signed between Russia and Iraq under the UN's "oil for food" program. According to an October 23 report, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ordzhonikidze... MORE

Russia has moved in recent weeks to boost its trade ties with Libya, and appears especially intent on finalizing a package of potentially lucrative defense contracts. Russian trade and defense officials clearly hope to capitalize on the close relations which existed between Tripoli and Moscow... MORE

On October 22, four MIG-29 all-weather fighter-interceptor jets of Russia's Air Force arrived at the Yerebuni airport near Yerevan, for permanent deployment with Russian forces in Armenia. This increment means that the Russian forces in that country now have eighteen MIG-29 planes, according to Armenian... MORE

To the surprise of some observers, Armenia's new "left-right" government has stayed the course on economic policy. Relations between Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian's government and the IMF have remained cordial, despite Sarkisian's criticism of the IMF during the spring parliamentary campaign. IMF support for Armenia's... MORE

On October 22, the Moldovan parliament approved legislation to create a county, Taraclia, at the insistence of the area's predominantly Bulgarian population. The decision brings a peaceful and democratic resolution to an incipient ethnic dispute fraught with potential international implications. The voting in the 101-seat... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin's spokesman made an effort yesterday to quell the persistent rumors that the tycoon Boris Berezovsky is playing a major role in Kremlin politics. In an interview with Moscow's Otkrytoye Radio (Open Radio), Dmitri Yakushkin characterized as a "gross exaggeration" the widely held... MORE