On January 5 the People's Democratic Party of Ukraine (NDP)--the "party of power"--released a public letter citing the conditions under which it would support Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's electoral bid in the October 1999 presidential elections. The announcement was broadcast on Ukrainian television and the... MORE

President Valdas Adamkus yesterday appointed the Lithuanian-American Skirma Anna Kondratas to the post of presidential adviser for social affairs. She previously served as United States Assistant Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department in the George Bush administration. Another Lithuanian-American, the retired U.S. Army... MORE

Estonia and Lithuania are concerned by Latvian Prime Minister Vilis Kristopans' stated intention to impose restrictions on pork imports from the two neighboring countries. The measure would violate the trilateral agreement on free trade in agricultural products, a cornerstone of Baltic economic cooperation. Yesterday Lithuania's... MORE

Russia's ambassador to Cyprus said yesterday that Nicosia's recent decisionPV not to deploy Russian S-300 air defense missile complexes on the island would in no way harm relations between Russia and Cyprus. Ambassador Georgy Muradov's remarks followed a meeting with Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides. The... MORE

A number of political parties and movements rallied yesterday in Djohar, the Chechen capital, to support the republic's parliament, which the Supreme Sharia Court of Chechnya suspended, along with its speaker Ruslan Alikhadzhiev, last month. On January 6, the parliamentarians declared the court's suspension action... MORE

Viktor Zorkaltsev--a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) and chairman of the executive committee of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia (the "national-patriotic" opposition's umbrella group)--said yesterday that the opposition would contest the parliamentary elections later this year in three "columns."... MORE

The dispute between Russia and Japan over control of the south Kuril Islands made headlines for a second day yesterday as Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that Tokyo intends to reject a recent Russian proposal related to the territorial dispute. Quoting unnamed Japanese government officials,... MORE

Yesterday, Russia's Orthodox Christmas, Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov addressed an awards ceremony organized by the Fund for Reconciliation and Accord, a charity whose board of trustees is chaired by Aleksy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Primakov called for a concerted effort to help... MORE

The latest pronouncements by leaders of the Musavat Party--one of Azerbaijan's two principal opposition parties--and articles in the party newspaper "Yeni Musavat" confirm the party's recent rapprochement with Iran. In an interview published yesterday, Party Secretary Sulheddin Akper reaffirmed the party's proposal to build the... MORE

The long-awaited ratification of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate treaty by Russia's Duma on December 25 might have boosted bilateral relations, were it not for the pressure of day-to-day problems. One such problem is Krasnoyarsk Governor Aleksandr Lebed's threat to discontinue storing and treating Ukrainian spent nuclear... MORE