Berezovsky's removal was greeted enthusiastically by most factions in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament. Gennady Seleznev, the Duma's speaker and a KPRF leader who is a close ally of Primakov, said the tycoon's firing was a cause for popping champagne corks.... MORE

Russian President Boris Yeltsin's decision late yesterday evening to remove Boris Berezovsky from the post of Commonwealth of Independent States executive secretary caught some of the CIS leaders off guard. Presidents Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia and Gaidar Aliev of Azerbaijan said that such decisions should... MORE

Kazakhstan's recently established party of power, Otan [Fatherland], held its first congress on March 1 in Almaty. Attended by nearly 400 delegates representing 35,000 registered members, the event marked Otan's absorption of three preexisting, yet embryonic pro-government organizations: the People's Unity Party, the Democratic Party,... MORE

Russia's military attache in Yerevan, Colonel Anatoly Balaev, has obliquely admitted to a violation of Azerbaijan's airspace by a Russian-piloted MIG-29 airplane from the squadron recently introduced by Russia in Armenia. On February 27, the MiG overflew the Kelbajar district, penetrating some fifteen to twenty... MORE

With 230 votes in favor--just four more than the minimum of 226 needed for passage--and 42 opposed, the Ukrainian parliament yesterday approved its accession to the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly (IPA). The balance of the 450 deputies declined to vote. The highly emotional session nearly degenerated... MORE

On March 3, the private Ukrainian television channel STV appealed on the air to President Kuchma and the parliament to defend its journalists, citing several recent events involving its employees. In the morning of March 3, unknown assailants broke into the apartment of STV legal... MORE

By a margin of one vote among 101 participating deputies, the Moldovan parliament yesterday approved the composition and program of a right-of-center government. The Communist Party (CP), which holds forty seats, voted against, while the "right-wing" Popular Front (PF), which holds ten, abstained. These two... MORE

On March 1, Ingushetia began tabulating the results of elections for its Popular Assembly. The official results are to be announced this week, but Ingush President Ruslan Aushev already said that he is satisfied with the makeup of the new parliament. The newly elected legislature... MORE

In the midst of media attention on the current government, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov angrily declared: The Primakov government is "the result of a fragile agreement, and we will not allow Primakov, vacationing in Sochi, to share the fate of Gorbachev, who was vacationing... MORE

The government of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov appeared to be under further fire today in the wake of a rumor that President Boris Yeltsin had given him an ultimatum to fire communist cabinet members. A Russian news agency, citing unnamed sources, reported late yesterday that... MORE