Cherepkov's ouster may not bode well for Chubais, who heads United Energy System, Russia's electricity grid. The opposition in the State Duma has blamed Chubais for the energy crisis in the Far East and the Far North, and has demanded his resignation. Meanwhile, another "version"... MORE

Kyrgyz police announced today the arrest of three deputy ministers--of finance, industry and ecology, respectively--and of several department heads in the ministries of finance and agriculture. According to Internal Affairs Minister Omurbek Kutuev, the operation had been planned for months and represents the toughest anticorruption... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin gave a radio address Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the adoption of Russia's constitution. The key message of the speech was that Russia needed "strong power at the top," and the Russian head of state attacked those who he said... MORE

Deputy Defense Minister Colonel Vahram Horkhoruni was killed during the night of December 9-10 on the threshold of his apartment in central Yerevan (see also the Monitor, December 10). The attack bore the hallmarks of a contract killing: Of the seven shots fired in the... MORE

The governments of Kazakhstan and the United States and leading oil and gas companies have agreed to conduct a feasibility study for laying westward export pipelines out of Kazakhstan. The state company Kazakhoil and Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokaev signed the agreement on December 9 in... MORE

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has stated that the country's national currency, the hryvnya, should be floated, and all restrictions on hard currency purchases canceled so that the currency market might "function normally." He advocated canceling the "currency corridor," or the fixed hryvnya exchange rate band... MORE

Defense Minister Girts Kristovskis confirmed yesterday that Latvia's new coalition government under Vilis Kristopans has scaled back the defense budget for 1999, which had been submitted by the predecessor government under Guntars Krasts. The revised defense budget amounts to 0.9 percent of GNP, instead of... MORE

If the Foreign Ministry of Belarus is to be believed, the European Union countries have accepted in writing the eviction of their diplomatic residences from the Drazdy compound and will make alternative arrangements in Minsk. The eviction order last May, rudely enforced by Belarusan authorities... MORE

High-ranking Russian Foreign Ministry officials reportedly confirmed on December 9 that Moscow has flatly rejected a Japanese proposal which would have transferred the Russian-controlled south Kuril Islands to Japan by redrawing the border between the two countries. That Moscow had adopted a hardline stance on... MORE

The Russian government reportedly agreed on December 9 to raise projected military spending in 1999 to 3.1 percent of GDP. According to Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin, the decision was made during a Russian cabinet meeting. A previous budget draft had reportedly set defense spending at... MORE