The military board of the Supreme Court of Tajikistan has sentenced to death Sherali Mirzoev and Kosym Babaev, prominent allies of the rebel ex-Colonel Mahmud Hudoberdiev (Itar-Tass, June 21). The trio had led the 1997 antigovernment rebellion in the Khatlon region, whose indigenous leadership had... MORE

On June 21, following a legislative initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbaev, a joint session of the Senate and the Milli Majlis (lower parliamentary chamber) adopted amendments to both Kazakhstan's electoral law and election-related provisions of its Administrative Code. The amendments eliminate the provision which had... MORE

Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade--who represented the convalescent President Haidar Aliev--signed yesterday in Luxembourg a joint declaration with the European Union (EU). The quadripartite summit aimed, first, to promote regionwide pacification and cooperation in the South... MORE

Ukraine's powerful parliamentary gas lobby has formed a new party, called--perhaps with tongue in cheek, as it is scarcely likely to defend the working people of the country--Labor Ukraine. At its founding congress in Kyiv on June 19, the party elected Mykhaylo Syrota, former chair... MORE

In a recent interview with the monthly "Sovershenno sekretno" (Top Secret), Yuri Skuratov gave further details about what corruption investigations had revealed prior to his suspension as prosecutor general. He said that after his investigators seized the databases of the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange concerning... MORE

Russia's Supreme Court yesterday found that the criminal investigation of Yuri Skuratov, who was suspended from his duties as Russia's prosecutor general earlier this year, is legal and may proceed. In early April, a Moscow city deputy prosecutor launched a criminal investigation of Skuratov for... MORE

In general, Russian media treatment of the Kosovo crisis has been sharply biased in favor of Belgrade and overwhelmingly critical of NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia. The Russian media has also been critical of its own government's efforts to broker a Kosovo peace settlement. That... MORE

One issue which could complicate approval of the Kosovo mission is financing. Russian officials had earlier expressed hopes that the UN would pick up the costs for the Kosovo peacekeeping mission, but recently (on June 21) conceded that Moscow would have to foot the bill... MORE

The Russian government moved yesterday toward authorizing the dispatch of Russian troops to Kosovo, but appeared to leave unresolved key questions regarding both the schedule of the deployment and the manner in which the government would finance the peacekeeping mission. Moscow's uncertain signals came amid... MORE

The United States government and several Balkan countries are taking under active consideration a proposal to transport Kazakhstani oil to Europe through a pipeline across Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. The proposed line would, in effect, extend the pipeline, which is already under construction, from Kazakhstan's... MORE