As predicted (see the Monitor, January 22), CIS Executive Secretary Boris Berezovsky's plan to create a CIS security service is being blocked in Moscow itself, even before it officially reaches the CIS leaders. The plan would have spawned a CIS "antiterrorist" and "counterintelligence" apparatus directly... MORE

On January 23 Fatherland and Freedom, the junior party in Latvia's coalition government, issued a statement of concern over recent attempts to "discredit and delay Latvia's movement toward NATO." Citing the fabricated interview with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, Fatherland and Freedom's council expressed "even more... MORE

The situation in Chechnya is reaching the boiling point, and the heads of Russia's Federal Security Service do not rule out the possibility that a civil war could break out at any moment. On January 21, a group of officials from Chechnya's Ministry of Sharia... MORE

On January 22 a spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB)--the main successor organization to the Soviet-era KGB--said that his agency is keeping tabs on hundreds of agents working for foreign intelligence organizations. In 1998, the spokesman said, the FSB nabbed thirteen foreign intelligence agents... MORE

Ivanov addressed several other issues during his remarks on January 22, including Russian-U.S. ties. The Russian foreign minister tried to put a positive spin on what has in fact been a sharp rise in tensions between the two countries over Iraq, Kosovo and Iran. Ivanov... MORE

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters on January 22 that Russia had managed during, the course of last year, to boost its influence in world affairs. "Not only has Russia retained its status as a key player in the international scene over the past... MORE

The war between Lebed and his opponents heated up significantly last week with a dispute over the Borodinsky open pit mine, the largest in Russia. Last month, Krasugol's management gave another local firm, the Krasnoyarsk Fuel Company (KTK), the right to collect a debt from... MORE

The war between Krasnoyarsk Governor Aleksandr Lebed and local power brokers reached new levels of intensity this weekend, when Lebed ordered police to cordon off the region's television and radio company to prevent two officials whom he had fired from entering the premises. Two weeks... MORE

Defense Ministers Oleksandr Kuzmuk of Ukraine, Davit Tevzadze of Georgia and Safar Abiev of Azerbaijan conferred yesterday in Baku on a set of ambitious ideas for military and security cooperation among their countries. The proposals, apparently initiated by Azerbaijan, focus on creating a joint battalion... MORE

Two major Ukrainian right-of-center parties, the Rukh and the Reforms and Order Party (PRP), have formed a coalition with a third, the Republican Christian Party, to back former Foreign Affairs Minister Hennady Udovenko as their presidential candidate in this year's elections. Announcing this intention at... MORE