Last August's decision by the Russian government, headed by then-Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko, to freeze debt payments and to allow a large devaluation in the ruble, remains controversial, and the details of exactly who made the decision remain unclear. In an interview published today (December... MORE

Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov signed an order Tuesday (December 15) on the government's plan for restructuring Russia's domestic debt--the treasury bills which were frozen last August 17. Details of the plan have yet to be revealed, however, though members of the government who met yesterday... MORE

The Popular Front leader and former president of Azerbaijan, Abulfaz Elchibey, is currently a defendant in a defamation case in a Baku court. The Justice Ministry has charged him with "insulting the honor and dignity" of President Haidar Aliev in a statement last month. Elchibey... MORE

Ukraine's largest and oldest right-wing party, the People's Movement (Rukh), at its ninth congress on December 12-13 nominated two candidates for the presidential elections of 1999: the party's leader, Vyacheslav Chornovil, 61, and former Foreign Minister Hennady Udovenko, 67. The vote was far from unanimous:... MORE

An artificial political scandal in Moldova has exposed the fragility of the governing coalition, some of members of which sometimes join forces with the communist opposition in undermining the president and government. This has just recurred in the Popular Front, a self-declared pro-Western group, spearheading... MORE

Leaders of Latvia and Lithuania yesterday put on a brave face after the European Union's summit declined to advance them from the second to the first group--which includes Estonia--of applicant countries. The prime ministers, foreign ministers and parliamentary leaders in Riga and Vilnius commented that... MORE

Russian arms sales to another part of the world, meanwhile, have awakened some concern in the West. As Russia's armed forces have had to deal with increasingly severe budgetary shortfalls and the need to cut back manpower, the country's Defense Ministry has moved to market... MORE

Russian news sources have suggested regularly in recent weeks that India and Russia are about to sign a series of arms agreements which will greatly increase revenues for Moscow from the country's already lucrative arms dealings with New Delhi. According to one Russian daily, for... MORE

During an official visit to Greece on Monday, Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov said that in the near future there would be "significant exposures" in the case involving the alleged embezzlement in the early 1990s of diamonds and precious metals worth US$183 million. The case centers... MORE

The Russian government got a bit of a boost--at least a psychological one--on Monday from top officials of several international lending organizations. Horst Koehler, head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said the EBRD would commit US$1 billion for funding new projects... MORE