Final returns of Armenia's May 30 parliamentary elections confirm the victory of the Unity [Miasnutiun] bloc, which is composed of the Republican Party of Defense Minister Vazgen Sarkisian and the People's Party of the long-time former leader of Soviet Armenia, Karen Demirchian (see the Monitor,... MORE

On June 11, Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin is scheduled to meet with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov in the capital of Ingushetia. Stepashin announced the meeting over the weekend while attending a celebration in Pskov Oblast dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of... MORE

The Kremlin, meanwhile, has dropped a hint that it sees Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin as a potential successor to President Boris Yeltsin. In an interview published earlier this week, Kremlin administration chief Aleksandr Voloshin suggested that Stepashin has presidential ambitions (Izvestia, June 7). That idea... MORE

For the first time the Kremlin has denied rumors that President Boris Yeltsin is planning to stay in power after June 2000, when his constitutional term ends and new presidential elections are scheduled. An unnamed "Kremlin representative" said that Yeltsin "will go down in history... MORE

In Moscow, meanwhile, Russian parliamentarians continued to vent their spleen on Russia's special Balkans envoy. The Council of the State Duma yesterday approved a draft resolution on urgent measures needed to resolve the conflict in Yugoslavia. Sponsored by a trio of leftist deputies--Nikolai Ryzhkov, of... MORE

Yesterday's agreement followed a telephone conversation between the Russian and the U.S. presidents--the second in as many days--in which Washington urged Moscow to approve the draft UN resolution. In Moscow, Yeltsin expressed his "satisfaction" with the draft, though he also demanded an immediate end to... MORE

NATO moved a step closer to winning a political settlement of the Kosovo conflict on its own terms yesterday, as Western leaders won Russia's grudging agreement to a draft UN Security Resolution aimed at bringing the seventy-eight-day conflict to a close. Yesterday's agreement by Russia... MORE

The authorities of Kazakhstan's Almaty region are urging citizens to "voluntarily lend" their gold and other jewelry, as well as hard currency, to the state as a means of helping the economy. Lenders are being given receipts and promises that the assets will be returned... MORE

Receiving Azerbaijani ambassador Tamerlan Garaev in Beijing, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wang Yingfan described the recent Chinese sale of eight Typhoon multiple-launcher missile systems to Armenia (see the Monitor, May 11) as "a regrettable but fortuitous incident." Wang also notified the Azerbaijani ambassador that the... MORE

The Agrarian Party of Ukraine (APU)--the main rival of parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko's Peasant Party in the competition for the agricultural electorate--has joined the electoral campaign on behalf of President Leonid Kuchma. At their congress on June 7, APU delegates also replaced the party's chair,... MORE