The controversy surrounding FIMACO--the little-known asset management company in which Russia's Central Bank placed significant chunks of the country's hard-currency reserves--took another turn yesterday. Sergei Aleksashenko, who was a top deputy to former Central Bank chairman Sergei Dubinin, said in a news conference that at... MORE

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin suggested yesterday that President Boris Yeltsin is still planning an official visit to Japan later this year. Rakhmanin said that a visit to Tokyo by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, scheduled to start on February 20, is intended, in part,... MORE

Russian media sources reported on February 10 that Kuwait is considering the purchase of Russian military hardware and may be especially interested in S-300 air defense missiles. Kuwait was said to be looking at Russian T-80 tanks and antitank weapons as well (Nezavisimaya gazeta, Itar-Tass,... MORE

Bulgarian President Petr Stoyanov wound up a two-day, unofficial visit to Moscow on February 15. Stoyanov was in the Russian capital to accept a legal prize awarded by the Moscow Lawyers Club, but used the occasion to conduct talks with both Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny... MORE

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, as had been widely expected, has returned the draft law on presidential elections to parliament for reexamination. In his opinion, the provision in the bill which allows only parties and political blocs to nominate candidates violates the constitution. Kuchma's dislike of... MORE

The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan yesterday sentenced former Prime Minister Suret Huseinov to life imprisonment on multiple charges including high treason, creation of unlawful armed groups, attempted coups d'etat and drug trafficking. The high treason charge alone carries the death penalty under the criminal code,... MORE

Tatyana Zhdanok, internationally billed as a "human rights campaigner," threatened yesterday to appeal to the European Court on Human Rights after a Riga court invalidated her mandate of a deputy on the Riga City Council. The defense claims that Zhdanok may have been targeted for... MORE

In a statement delivered during his just-completed visit to Russia, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka declared himself eligible for the presidency of the Russia-Belarus Union. Describing that would-be presidency as a strong executive office, with "wide-ranging powers and authority" over both Russia and Belarus, Lukashenka indicated that... MORE

Yuri Skuratov stepped down as prosecutor general on February 2, the day after he sent his letter to the parliament concerning FIMACO. The Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, is set this week to rule on President Boris Yeltsin's decision to accept Skuratov's... MORE

The leaders of the Chechen opposition have created a "Committee for the Freeing of Aiset Dadaheva and Fatima Taimaskhanova." These are the two Chechen women who were sentenced on February 8 to sixteen and nineteen years in prison, respectively, for their role in the 1997... MORE