Russia's Foreign Ministry repeated its misgivings yesterday about a 1997 accord which strengthens and broadens the security alliance between the United States and Japan. Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin told reporters that the vagueness of the new Japanese-U.S. defense guidelines worries Moscow and other countries... MORE

A recent article in the Western press has refocused public attention on an old problem: the steady deterioration of Russia's nuclear command and control infrastructure. The article reported significant gaps in the satellite portion of the Russian Missile Attack Warning System (MAWS), to the extent... MORE

On a visit to Tbilisi yesterday, Russia's First Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Mikhailov stated that "the Russian military presence in Georgia corresponds to the interests of both countries." The statement is an affront to Georgia, which seeks a negotiated withdrawal of Russian forces from its... MORE

Latvian Defense Minister Girts Kristovskis said yesterday that if Latvia had made timely decisions to increase defense spending, its readiness to join NATO could have been rated today on a par with Lithuania's. Kristovskis was commenting on a Congressional Research Service study just released in... MORE

On a visit to Russia's oil-extracting Komi Republic yesterday, Belarusan President Alyaksandr Lukashenka described the Russia-Belarus Union as an intermediate stage toward a far more ambitious goal. If successful, that union will "pull Ukraine in," leaving Kazakhstan "afraid to separate itself from Russia," Lukashenka predicted.... MORE

A referendum which Ingushetian President Ruslan Aushev called for February 28 may not take place. Boris Yeltsin has declared a decree Aushev signed invalid. The decree would have asked the inhabitants of Ingushetia to express their view on the idea of transferring the power of... MORE

As might have been expected, Russian government officials yesterday vehemently denied a CIA report alleging that Russian and Chinese businesses and quasi-government agencies pose a growing international proliferation threat (see the Monitor, February 11). Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov was quoted as insisting... MORE

Yevgeny Primakov claimed a victory yesterday when State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznev assured the prime minister that the lower house of parliament would back a Kremlin-cabinet plan for a "nonaggression pact" between the branches of power in the run-up to this year's legislative elections. Primakov... MORE

Yesterday, following several days of talks in Moscow devoted to international and economic issues, Russia and Italy declared themselves satisfied with the state of their bilateral relations. The Italian delegation--reportedly a large one--was headed by Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema and included Foreign Trade Minister Piero... MORE

Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokaev called yesterday for revisions to be made to the CIS Collective Security Treaty in connection with its extension. He did not specify what revisions Kazakhstan has in mind. Citing neighboring Uzbekistan's refusal to prolong its participation in the treaty as... MORE