Talks between Belgrade and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership were scheduled to resume in Rambouillet, France this morning, but few Western observers appeared to be predicting any quick successes. The dearth of optimism was due in part to a failure on March 12 by the foreign... MORE

Russian political and military officials across the political spectrum continued on March 12 to criticize NATO's formal acceptance of three new member states (see the Monitor, March 12). But Moscow's complaints and warnings were, perhaps inevitably, mixed with more accommodating signals which reflected Russia's fears... MORE

The antiterrorist unit of Kyrgyzstan's National Security Ministry has arrested "approximately ten" citizens of Uzbekistan whom it suspects of involvement in last month's bomb attacks in Tashkent. Announcing the capture yesterday, the ministry described the group as "Wahhabis," hiding in an apartment building in Bishkek.... MORE

The Armenian Pan-National Movement (APNM) has reelected as its chairman Vano Siradeghian, who had recently fled the country. The movement's board made that decision with twenty-one votes in favor, fourteen opposed and six abstaining on March 8. The board meeting capped a party congress which... MORE

President Eduard Shevardnadze has added a further condition to the set of conditions which will determine Georgia's ultimate stance on the CIS Collective Security Treaty. Shevardnadze told a March 10 news conference that Georgia would not accept the creation of a CIS-wide or a regional... MORE

An "extraordinary" session of the Russia-Belarus Union's Parliamentary Assembly, held yesterday in Moscow, adopted the Union's 1999 budget in the amount of 800 billion Russian rubles. No deficit is built in, but one may well develop if disbursements fall short during the year, as seems... MORE

The Foreign Ministry of Belarus responded yesterday to a March 3 note from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had urged the government to enter into a dialogue with the opposition to resolve the existing "constitutional dispute" (see the Monitor, March... MORE

Emigration from Russia to Israel doubled during the first two months of this year over the same period last year, an Israeli organization reported yesterday. According to the Jewish Agency, a quasi-government body, more than 3,300 people emigrated from Russia to Israel in January and... MORE

Conflicting claims multiplied yesterday regarding the status of the post of CIS executive secretary. Russian President Boris Yeltsin told his Georgian counterpart Eduard Shevardnadze by telephone that Boris Berezovsky has signed and handed in his resignation. Yeltsin's chief spokesman Dmitri Yakushkin, however, said nothing about... MORE

Magomed Khachilaev, the infamous deputy in Dagestan's Popular Assembly, has been released from prison in Makhachkala, the region's capital. The official reason for his release is that his health had begun to deteriorate--specifically, that he was losing his sight (RTR, NTV, March 11). Khachilaev and... MORE