In addition to discussing bilateral Russian-Japanese relations (see yesterday's Monitor), Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov used a trip to Japan this past weekend to admonish Tokyo and Washington anew for their close military ties. In remarks to the press on February 21 and 22, Ivanov... MORE

Russia's political and military elite yesterday marked Defender of the Fatherland Day, the country's main military holiday and one which was celebrated with much fanfare during the Soviet period as Army and Navy Day. Official ceremonies actually began on February 22 in the evening, when... MORE

President Eduard Shevardnadze told a news conference yesterday that Russia is failing to reciprocate Georgia's wish for "equitable cooperation." Moscow "continues an imperialist policy, at variance with civilized world standards," Shevardnadze said. The president reproached Moscow for: (1) failing to ratify the interstate treaty which... MORE

Turkmenistan, whose untapped gas reserves are among the world's largest, is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of servitude to Russia's Gazprom. On February 19 in Ashgabat Turkmen President Saparmurat Niazov and PSG consortium chairman Edward Smith signed the eagerly awaited... MORE

Ukraine's fugitive former prime minister, Pavlo Lazarenko, was arrested by United States immigration authorities this past weekend at Kennedy airport in New York. Lazarenko was attempting to enter the United States on an Argentine visa which was found to be fraudulent. Ukraine promptly applied to... MORE

Yevhen Marchuk--former KGB general, then Ukrainian prime minister--has apparently radically changed his professed ideology in return for support of his presidential bid. After breaking with the United Social Democratic Party, which to all appearances opted for the incumbent President Kuchma, Marchuk has joined the nationalist... MORE

Meanwhile, just days after a group of Federation Council members led by Samara Governor Konstantin Titov announced the formation of a new electoral bloc, Russia's Voice, there are rumors that yet another governors' bloc is about to be announced. According to a report today, the... MORE

Interviewed by Iranian television in Minsk yesterday, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka urged the formation of a political, military and economic alliance of Russia, Iran, India and China--with Belarus tagging along--"as the counterweight to the United States and NATO." Only such an alliance could return the "American-dominated,... MORE

As one newspaper noted today, the idea of doing away with Russia's regional divisions was first floated several years back by ultra-nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who called for redividing the country into a smaller number of geographically larger "gubernias." Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov floated a... MORE

The two sides did nevertheless make it clear over the weekend that they would continue high-level negotiations aimed at reaching some sort of settlement of the treaty and territorial issues. Ivanov's trip to Tokyo, for example, was said to have been devoted in large part... MORE