Yevgeny Ananev's dismissal from Rosvooruzhenie and the apparent confusion in Russia about who would negotiate with Greece were symptoms of a broader battle for political control of Russian arms exports. Maslyukov, who had been granted some responsibilities in this area following his entry into Prime... MORE

Moscow and Athens signed a contract on February 26 under which Greece agreed to purchase twenty-one Russian-made Tor-M1 short-range air defense missile complexes. The value of the deal was estimated by Russian sources at over US$500 million. The two sides also signed an option for... MORE

Uzbek official statements increasingly tend to blame the February 16 terror bombings (see the Monitor, February 17, 24) on indigenous "Islamic fanatics" in the employ of "external forces." The authorities, however, have not yet managed to identify either the individuals or the forces behind them.... MORE

Armenian President Robert Kocharian has appointed Suren Harutiunian as the country's ambassador to Belarus and, concurrently, as plenipotentiary representative to CIS bodies headquartered in Minsk. Harutiunian should be able to establish a uniquely congenial relationship with Belarusan President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's government and the Soviet holdover... MORE

The Ukrainian capital should soon cease to be a city without an elected mayor. On March 2 the parliament, by a vote of 265-51, scheduled Kyiv's mayoral election for May 30. This decision concluded an extended parliamentary squabble over the particulars of a law passed... MORE

The Estonian government yesterday refused to grant a residency permit to Mikhail Tsyplyakov, the Russian Lukoil company's chief of operations in Estonia. The decision was made by an interministerial committee empowered to rule on residency permit applications submitted by servicemen of the former occupation forces.... MORE

During his trip around Dagestan at the end of last week, Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin had a meeting on the Chechen border with a delegation of Chechen law enforcement officials headed by Vice-Premier Turpal Atgeriev, who is in charge of the republic's power ministries. According... MORE

Yuri Maslyukov said yesterday that if he is unable to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, it will not be a "catastrophe," given that Primakov or even President Boris Yeltsin can take over as Russia's negotiator (Russian agencies, March 3). A Russian daily... MORE

Russian officials have reacted with anger to the statements this week made by Michel Camdessus, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) general director, and Stanley Fischer, the Fund's deputy director, that Russia will not receive further credits without presenting a credible economic plan. On March 1,... MORE

Russia's Defense Ministry offered new assurances yesterday that it has a handle on the Y2K problem. General Vladimir Dvorkin, identified as director of the ministry's Fourth Central Research Institute, told reporters that the so-called millennium bug does not pose a risk to most of the... MORE