Ratification of the START II strategic arms treaty was in the headlines once again yesterday, as the council of the Russian State Duma rejected a motion which would have put consideration of the treaty on the Duma's March 5 agenda. The proposal to consider the... MORE

The Kyrgyz army battalion which had since 1993 served under Russian command in Tajikistan completed its transfer to the home country yesterday. The battalion had been deployed in the Ishkashim border sector opposite Afghanistan, in difficult mountainous terrain. The Kyrgyz government decided to relocate it... MORE

Abkhazia unilaterally launched yesterday what it terms the repatriation of ethnic Georgian who fled during the 1992-1993 war. Sukhumi's move is opposed by Tbilisi and by the refugee organizations and lacks international approval. The UN and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) missions... MORE

The leadership of the forcibly dissolved, but internationally recognized Belarusan parliament has empanelled an electoral commission, appointed Viktar Hanchar as its chairman and mandated it to conduct a presidential election this coming May. Hanchar had chaired the country's official Central Electoral Commission prior to President... MORE

Known in Estonia as a former Soviet KGB major-general who handled Baltic affairs, Aleksandr Perelygin now covers the Baltic area as an adviser to Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow mayor and Russian presidential aspirant. According to Estonian press reports, Perelygin has retained his links to the KGB's... MORE

On February 26, Nikolai Gonchar, a member of the State Duma's budget committee, charged that top Central Bank officials had used accounts in FIMACO--the obscure offshore firm which managed billions of dollars from Russia's hard currency reserves over five years--to pocket millions of dollars in... MORE

CIS executive secretary and tycoon Boris Berezovsky held a sensation-filled press conference yesterday. Strongly criticizing the government of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, among other things, Berezovsky also repeated his call for a ban on the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF). Berezovsky, while denying... MORE

Boris Berezovsky also called in his press conference yesterday for a radical restructuring of Russia's special services, charging that they are under Communist influence. He again claimed that the special services--specifically, a former head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Yeltsin's former bodyguard--were behind... MORE

The Clinton administration reportedly moved early last month to cut off arms sales to Greece because of suspicions that the Greek government had supplied secret NATO aircraft jamming codes to Russia. According to published reports (Washington Post, AP, February 27), the suspicions set off alarm... MORE

The GAO report criticizing aspects of the Department of Energy's aid programs to Russian military specialists was released as Israel announced plans of its own to support underfunded Russian scientists. Israeli Trade and Industry Minister Natan Sharansky, in Russia last week for talks with Kremlin... MORE