Kyrgyz troops and Uzbek counterinsurgency units are battling the Islamic guerrillas entrenched since August 21 in three villages in the Batken district of the Osh Region in southern Kyrgyzstan (see the Monitor, August 24). Both sides have suffered casualties in the stalemate. Kyrgyz President Askar... MORE

The latest developments on the Kuril Islands issue come amid a flurry of high-level contacts between Russian and Japanese officials. Early this month Tamba and his Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, held talks in Moscow devoted to the peace treaty and islands negotiations,... MORE

In what may have been the first sign of a compromise by either of the sides with regard to the two incompatible Kuril Island proposals, Japanese sources intimated earlier this week that Tokyo may now be considering the possibility of concluding the peace treaty with... MORE

In recent weeks Russia and Japan have stepped up their diplomatic sparring in connection with negotiations aimed at concluding a peace treaty and resolving differences relative to the single issue which has thus far been the major impediment to a treaty agreement: the Kuril Islands... MORE

Despite their failure to win over Sergei Stepashin and Viktor Chernomyrdin's Russia is Our Home, leaders of Russia's right forged ahead yesterday with their proposed coalition. Former Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko announced that the coalition will be called the "Union of Right Forces," and that... MORE

In a decision which caught most observers by surprise, Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko and former Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin announced on August 23 that they will join forces. Stepashin will reportedly get one of the top three positions in Yabloko's party list of candidates for this... MORE

In early August, Islamic militants from Tajikistan kidnapped a mayor and three security officers in Kyrgyzstan's Osh region opposite the Tajik border. Kyrgyz troops and helicopters sent in pursuit failed to even locate the militants, let alone engage them. On August 15 at the request... MORE

The value of Russian arms sales to developing countries fell to US$1.4 billion last year, continuing a nearly decade-long decline which, according to an annual U.S. congressional report, is likely to continue in the years to come. According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report,... MORE

Presidents Haidar Aliev of Azerbaijan and Robert Kocharian of Armenia and their top aides held unmediated negotiations toward settling the Karabakh conflict on August 22 near Geneva. The most significant aspect of this meeting was not--as is sometimes said in such cases--that it was held... MORE

Tensions over developments in the Balkans have remained high not only between the Russian contingent and the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo, but also between Russian political and military leaders and their Western counterparts. For all of that, the Kosovo peacekeeping mission remains the one... MORE