Yesterday in Washington Israeli Trade and Industry Minister Natan Sharansky charged that Russia is not doing enough to stop the leakage of missile technologies to Iran. Sharansky, who was in Moscow for talks late last month, said that he was not accusing Russian authorities of... MORE

Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji said in Beijing yesterday that Russia and China have as yet not planned any joint measures in response to discussions between Japan and the United States over the possible deployment of a theater missile defense (TMD) system in Asia. Zhu... MORE

The prime minister of Kyrgyzstan, Zhumabek Ibraimov, is reported to have been rushed yesterday from Bishkek to Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital. He is said to be in the intensive care ward for an as yet undisclosed ailment. Russia's President Boris Yeltsin and Security Council Secretary... MORE

A crowd of "Kurdish" children, said by march organizers to number more than 1,000, demonstrated in central Yerevan on March 12 in support of Kurdish terrorist leader Abdullah Ocalan. The children, ranging from pre-schoolers to teenagers, carried portraits of Ocalan, signs with slogans reading "We... MORE

On March 12 in Ashgabat, President Saparmurat Niazov and other Turkmen officials signed a commercial agreement on gas deliveries with Turkey's Energy Minister Zia Aktas and the Botas state company. The Turkish side guarantees that it will purchase 16 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas... MORE

On March 12, by a vote of 52-49, the Moldovan parliament approved the composition and program of the new, right-of-center coalition government headed by Ion Sturza. Last week the same program and a similar cabinet list was approved by a vote of 51-50 (see the... MORE

Ukraine has reported meeting two of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) main requirements to qualify for resumption of the US$2.2 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program. Last week, President Leonid Kuchma launched a reform of the state administration and the Constitutional Court gave a green... MORE

A new corruption scandal may be in the making, and the man who may make it happen is Yuri Skuratov, Russia's ostensibly former prosecutor general. Skuratov stepped down at the beginning of February, officially for health reasons, but most observers believed he was forced to... MORE

Several media are talking up another possible replacement for Primakov--Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin, who was in the limelight last week for his hardline statements vis-a-vis Chechnya following the abduction of General Gennady Shpigun. One newspaper cited "confidential sources" as saying that rumors that Stepashin--who, according... MORE

Rumors that a government shake-up is in the works continued to circulate over the weekend. President Boris Yeltsin fueled the fire on March 11, when he suddenly summoned Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky to come to the Central Clinical Hospital for a meeting (see the Monitor,... MORE