Russia's largest ammunition stockpile in Europe--outside Russia itself--is located at Colbasna in Moldova's Transdniester region, according to the commander of Russian troops in Moldova, Lieutenant-General Valery Yevnevich, interviewed in yesterday's issue of the Russian Defense Ministry daily Krasnaya zvezda. The Colbasna arsenal contains more than... MORE

A rump Council of Defense Ministers (CDM) of CIS Countries convened yesterday in Yerevan. Only five countries were represented by their defense ministers; three countries sent deputy ministers; and four other countries stayed away. Russia's Defense Minister Marshal Igor Sergeev complimented Armenia as a country... MORE

Amid the continued standoff over Kosovo, Russia and the United States reopened an earlier diplomatic confrontation this week involving UN sanctions against Iraq. UN policy toward Iraq has been paralyzed since December, when the United States and Britain launched air strikes against Baghdad for its... MORE

Moscow, meanwhile, played host once again yesterday to a host of foreign officials and leaders involved in resolving the Kosovo conflict. In addition to Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, UN special envoy Eduard Kukan was in the Russian... MORE

Diplomats and government officials continued to say yesterday that a Kosovo peace settlement might be in reach, but there was little hard evidence to suggest that the West had overcome still significant differences between its own positions and those of Moscow and Belgrade. The focal... MORE

Is the Kremlin, now that it has removed Yevgeny Primakov from office, shifting its gun-sites toward Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov? There is no direct evidence that this is the case. It is interesting to note, however, that this week Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the Liberal... MORE

The Russian media continues to buzz about the tycoon Boris Berezovsky's apparent comeback to a predominant place in Kremlin court politics. The Kremlin has reportedly nixed Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin's plans to appoint State Duma budget committee chief Aleksandr Zhukov as first deputy prime minister... MORE

Boris Berezovsky's apparent victories in the battle for control over the new cabinet reportedly come at the expense of a rival group headed by privatization architect Anatoly Chubais, who currently heads United Energy System (UES), Russia's electricity grid. Both Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and the... MORE

Tajik President Imomali Rahmonov announced yesterday that he has decided to schedule a presidential election by November 6 at the latest, a constitutional referendum in the course of 1999, and parliamentary elections by February 2000 at the latest, under an electoral law to be drafted... MORE

Released from close medical supervision, Azerbaijani President Haidar Aliev flew from the United States to London yesterday. Aliev is due to arrive in Turkey today for a stay of several days, during which he will confer with the country's leaders and receive the Kemal Ataturk... MORE