Georgia has taken one more step in--as officials recently described it--its uphill effort to "work its passage" toward Europe and NATO (see the Monitor, July 1 and The Fortnight in Review, July 16). On July 20, the parliament approved President Eduard Shevardnadze's initiative to send... MORE

During his press conference yesterday, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov continued his attack on the Federal Security Service (FSB), which--he charged--had illegally seized documents from Inteko, a company run by his wife, Yelena Baturina, as part of a larger investigation into the alleged illegal export of... MORE

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's movement Fatherland (Otechestvo) and Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko played down yesterday's talk that the two groups had hit a major snag in finding a joint approach to December's parliamentary vote. Back in May, Yabloko proposed to Fatherland that the two blocs come... MORE

The electoral bloc All Russia (Vsya Rossiya) held the founding conference of its Moscow regional coordinating council in the Russian capital on July 20. Among the participants were St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, Oleg Morozov (who heads the Russian Regions faction in the State Duma)... MORE

A sharpening of tensions between the Russian military leadership and the government over the country's defense procurement budget appears to have surfaced in recent days. According to a July 20 newspaper report, Defense Ministry officials are now openly accusing the Finance Ministry of neglecting to... MORE

A top military commander insisted yesterday that Russian troops will maintain their presence in Kosovo for as long as the international peacekeeping mission remains there, despite the financial burdens the operation will weigh on the Russian budget. Lieutenant General Nikolai Staskov, chief of staff for... MORE

The Tajik government now acknowledges substantial progress in the disbandment of the United Opposition's (UTO) military forces. Mandated by the military stipulations of the 1997 Moscow peace agreements, the disbandment of UTO forces has until recently been held up by government nonfulfillment of the political... MORE

Alyaksandr Lukashenka's lawful five-year term as president of Belarus expired on July 20. Lukashenka is, however, staying in office on the basis of constitutional changes he imposed on the country in November 1996. Through that "velvet coup" and the ensuing simulacrum of a plebiscite, the... MORE

Russian prosecutors yesterday seized documents from a Moscow firm in connection with an ongoing investigation into alleged moneylaundering and illegal business by officials in the state airline Aeroflot. While law enforcement officials would only say that the firm had maintained "contract relations" with Aeroflot, the... MORE

On July 16, Turpal Atgeriev, Chechnya's security minister, was detained at Moscow's Vnukovo airport and taken to the capital's well-known remand prison, Matrosskaya Tishina. Atgeriev was arrested for his participation in the 1996 Kizlyar raid led by rebel Chechen field commander Salman Raduev, the amnesty... MORE