Russia has now made public, in explicit form, its intention to deploy S-300 surface-to-air missiles at Russian military sites in Armenia. Major-General Vasily Grigoriev, identified as the head of a Russian Defense Ministry directorate in charge of cooperation with CIS countries, confirmed this intent yesterday... MORE

Following a meeting with Premier Valery Pustovoytenko at the western Ukrainian resort of Truskavets, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma began replacing members of his government. Among the new cabinet officials are the first deputy premier, the deputy premier for agriculture, the education minister and several deputy... MORE

Latvia's government has decided to cancel a plan to impose restrictive quotas and tariff surcharges on pork imports from Estonia and Lithuania. The government withdrew the bill from the agenda of today's parliamentary session. The plan, initiated by Prime Minister Vilis Kristopans, had triggered Estonian... MORE

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's ambassador to the UN, yesterday repeated Moscow's insistence that Richard Butler, chief of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) responsible for the mission to "disarm" Iraq, must be dismissed from his post as soon as possible. Lavrov also called once again both for... MORE

Behind the continued harsh rhetoric yesterday, however, there were signs the Monitorthat Moscow wanted to defuse the crisis. Yakushkin suggested in a radio interview that Russian-U.S. relations were destined on occasion to "hit such snags." Fortunately, he continued, "today we have a whole set of... MORE

Russian officials continued to rage yesterday at the Clinton administration, both for its decision to level sanctions against three Russian institutions and for parallel threats to curtail Russian launches of U.S. satellites if Moscow fails to stop leaking sensitive military technologies to Iran. Moscow portrayed... MORE

Reacting to chronic and widespread shortages across Russia, Yevgeny Primakov announced yesterday that the government will regulate the prices of medicines. The Russian prime minister said the market for medicines was characterized by "criminality," "law-flouting" and speculation, adding that a ceiling "not to be overstepped"... MORE

The Brazilian government's decision to effectively devalue its currency--the real--sparked a discussion in Moscow yesterday on what impact, if any, that decision could have on Russia. Vladimir Ryzhkov, first deputy speaker of the State Duma and a top member of Russia is Our Home, said... MORE

First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov met yesterday in Washington with Michel Camdessus, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and James Wofensohn, president of the World Bank. Maslyukov's comments after the meeting made it clear that the IMF has not softened its stance... MORE

Azerbaijan's official daily newspaper, "Yeni Azerbaijan," called yesterday [PL OKAY] for an international and regional response to the emergence of a "Russia-Iran tandem" [PV OKAY] in the South Caucasus-Caspian area. The officially inspired article also identified massive Russian arms transfers to Armenia as part of... MORE