Interviewed on state radio yesterday, Foreign Minister Valdis Birkavs touched on a number of issues in Latvia's external relations and security policies. As a long-time promoter of a Western orientation, Birkavs made two particularly significant points. He observed that "there are political forces both in... MORE

Security Council secretaries of those countries signatory to the CIS collective security treaty conferred in Moscow yesterday. Eight countries--Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan--were represented, the absentees being Ukraine, Moldova and Turkmenistan (which are not parties to the treaty) and Uzbekistan (which... MORE

Yuri Ushakov, Russia's newly named ambassador to the United States, departed Moscow for Washington yesterday to take up his new post. Ushakov, who replaces veteran diplomat Yuli Vorontsov, is scheduled to present his credentials to President Bill Clinton on January 22. Ushakov is a fifty-one-year-old... MORE

According to Ten, impetus for the proposal to declare the disputed south Kuril Islands a special economic zone came from Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and had the approval of President Boris Yeltsin. Primakov reportedly intends to submit a bill to the Russian Duma containing... MORE

The Russian government appears in recent days to have floated new details of a proposal which would promote joint Russian-Japanese economic development of the disputed south Kuril Islands as one means of boosting broader talks aimed at concluding a peace treaty between the two countries.... MORE

It seemed yesterday that Maslyukov's optimism had gotten the better of him. He had predicted that the ruble's value would rebound to 18-19 to the dollar. The Central Bank's official exchange rate yesterday, however, was 22.98 to the dollar, and exchange points around Moscow were... MORE

Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov's government got a morale boost yesterday when the State Duma passed the draft 1999 federal budget in its second reading. After six hours of debate, the lower house of Russia's parliament approved the draft in a 296-54 vote, with five abstentions.... MORE

Yesterday in Astana, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev laid the foundation stone of the first in a planned network of American-Kazakh schools--a program financed by a special presidential fund. The first of these schools will open its doors by next September, followed by others in various... MORE

On January 15, Ukraine's parliament overwhelmingly approved a new law which qualifies and quantifies the procedure for presidential elections. In a vote of 232-to-23, the lawmakers slipped the legislation in just before the body's winter break. Parliament reconvenes in February. The timing gives lawmakers the... MORE

Azerbaijan's presidential adviser for foreign policy, Vafa Guluzade, openly called yesterday for a major expansion in security cooperation between Azerbaijan and the West. As part of such cooperation, Guluzade proposed that Azerbaijan host a military base of the United States, Turkey or NATO. He suggested... MORE