Despite some faint hope that a diplomatic breakthrough might be looming, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council failed to reach agreement this week on a set of principles defining a new UN policy toward Iraq. In what some diplomats interpreted as a... MORE

On September 20, Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement challenging the right of Turkmenistan to its national sector in the Caspian Sea--clearly a reaction to Turkmen President Saparmurat Niazov's decree, just published in the official newspaper Neytralny Turkmenistan, on setting up a national service... MORE

Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski, prominent figures in the Belarusan opposition, are unaccounted for since "disappearing" during the night of September 16-17 while driving home on a Minsk street. But they did not disappear without a trace: A blood stain and broken glass from their... MORE

Bank of New York chief Thomas Renyi confirmed that Leonid Dyachenko, husband of President Boris Yeltsin's younger daughter and adviser Tatyana, had two accounts in a Bank of New York branch in the Cayman Islands. U.S. investigators are looking at these accounts to determine possible... MORE

Against the backdrop of the congressional hearings in Washington, it is interesting to note that the Russian daily Kommersant, which is owned by Kremlin insider Boris Berezovsky, cited rumors yesterday that the Kremlin inner circle has in recent weeks been carrying out "unofficial negotiations" aimed... MORE

The U.S. House of Representatives' Banking Committee held a second day of hearings yesterday, featuring James Robinson, head of the U.S. Justice Department's Criminal Division, and Thomas A. Renyi, head of the Bank of New York, which is being investigated for allegedly having received US$4... MORE

Moscow objected formally yesterday to an agreement finalized on Monday (September 20) between the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and KFOR and UN officials. A Russian Foreign Ministry statement described the agreement--which mandates the transformation of the KLA into a civilian emergency and rescue force (see... MORE

Foreign Minister Ivanov, not unexpectedly, also sounded off on international military interventions during his September 21 address. He appeared in part to embrace a call by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who earlier this week urged the international community to intervene more decisively on behalf... MORE

In an address which followed predictable lines, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told the UN General Assembly this week that separatist movements in countries around the world now constitute one of the gravest threats to international stability. The Russian foreign minister went on, moreover, to... MORE

Two NATO-sponsored parallel military exercises involving Ukrainian troops are underway on either side of the Ukrainian-Polish border. The Cossack Express-99 exercise, in progress since September 18 at the Yavoriv training grounds in the Lviv region of Ukraine, involves British and Ukrainian motorized infantry units of... MORE