Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi yesterday called a national referendum on the question of turning the country into a presidential republic. Constitutional changes would enlarge presidential powers by making the head of state "responsible for the formation of the government and for the results of governance."... MORE

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian warned yesterday that Armenia would take "measures in response" to a possible establishment of a Turkish military presence in Azerbaijan. Discussions on that matter, Oskanian told a news conference in Yerevan, are already underway between Baku and Ankara. He argued... MORE

On March 22, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma signed the law on presidential elections which parliament had approved in January. Kuchma had protested against the law's provision which gives political parties the exclusive right to nominate presidential candidates. Claiming that this clause contradicts the constitution and... MORE

While Landsbergis pointed to Moscow's inability to thwart the Baltic goal of NATO membership, the Group of International Military Advisers drew attention to internal factors interfering with that goal. Yesterday in Riga, the group--retired generals from NATO countries led by Britain's General Garry Johnson--urged the... MORE

At a March 22 press conference in Djohar, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov disavowed his earlier statement that the attempt on his life on March 21 was carried out by Russian special services (see the Monitor, March 22). Maskhadov also admitted the advisability of holding a... MORE

Lithuanian Parliament Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis told a news conference yesterday that the accession of neighboring Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to NATO signified Russia's failure to maintain the Yalta line which had divided Europe from World War II until the breakup of the Soviet... MORE

Russia moved a step closer to possible ratification of the START II strategic arms reduction treaty yesterday when President Boris Yeltsin officially informed Russian lawmakers that he had approved a Duma-drafted treaty ratification bill. The move should open the way to discussion of ratification by... MORE

Whatever the political motivations for his trip, Netanyahu appears to have tried during the talks in Moscow to convince Russian leaders that they would be better served economically to deal with Israel than with Iran. That point was made clear during an interview Netanyahu gave... MORE

Russia and Israel agreed yesterday to create an official consultative mechanism through which the two countries will study the problem of Russian military technology transfers to Iran. The decision came during talks between Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and visiting Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in... MORE

The Mabetex scandal is close to having sparked a full-blown political crisis. One Russian newspaper reported today that two top officials in the Kremlin administration--Oleg Sysuev, its first deputy head, and Ruslan Orekhov, who runs its powerful legal department--have expressed a desire to resign (Kommersant... MORE