Perhaps the most important aspect of Victor Chernomyrdin's selection as President Boris Yeltsin's official representative in the Balkans conflict is that it casts a further shadow over Primakov. During his seven months as prime minister, Primakov has not, to put it mildly, won any laurels... MORE

Yesterday's developments in Moscow came as a summit of EU leaders in Brussels also held talks with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Those talks, combined with a gathering of NATO foreign ministers on April 12 and the Albright-Ivanov meeting a day later, reflect a new... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin's decision to tap former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin as his personal representative for finding a solution to the conflict in Yugoslavia is being interpreted in Moscow as having both a foreign policy and a domestic political dimension. Chernomyrdin was named to the... MORE

Ukrainian, Georgian and Azerbaijani staff officers and commando units began yesterday a joint exercise in the Supsa-Poti area of Georgia. The exercise, to culminate on April 19, is designed as joint practice in providing security to oil pipelines and terminals. A Ukrainian army unit, experienced... MORE

Turkmen President Saparmurat Niazov heard encouraging progress reports yesterday in Ashgabat from Yosi Maiman, chairman of the Israeli company Merhav, and Ahmet Calyk, head of the Turkish conglomerate Calyk Group, on the trans-Caspian pipeline project. The Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey pipeline would provide the first major export route... MORE

Ukraine's former prime minister and current presidential contender Yevhen Marchuk returned yesterday to Kyiv from a visit to Belgrade and took a stridently pro-Serbian position. Marchuk called for Ukraine to transit Russian weapons to Serbia, should Russia decide to supply the weapons. Marchuk portrayed the... MORE

At a session chaired by Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, the country's Defense Council has decided to sell a further 33 percent of shares in the country's oil sector to the Williams International Company of the United States. The decision frustrates the Russian Lukoil's company attempts... MORE

Pravoe Delo (Right Cause)--the center-right coalition formed by Yegor Gaidar, Anatoly Chubais and others--held a conference in Moscow yesterday, during which Gaidar laid out the party's platform. The former acting prime minister charged that the "Primakov-Maslyukov government has shown its complete ineffectiveness in economic policy,"... MORE

While the warming of relations between Yuri Luzhkov and the Kremlin have given more credence to rumors that Yeltsin is preparing to replace the Primakov cabinet with a Luzhkov-Yavlinsky one, other combinations are possible. What might be called the "rumor of the day," which was... MORE

In yet another sign that enmities are being put aside and old friendships renewed, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov met yesterday with President Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin. Luzhkov--the one-time Yeltsin loyalist who late last year formed the political movement Otechestvo (Fatherland) and who has in... MORE