Last week in Russia there was much speculation of a possible bright political future for Sergei Kirienko--as one of the leaders of a new democratic-centrist bloc, or, alternatively, as a possible prime minister under a future President Yuri Luzhkov. Kirienko, who served as Russian prime... MORE

Aleksandr Shokhin, head of the Our Home is Russia faction in the State Duma, responded publicly yesterday to an article published in the latest issue of the tabloid monthly "Sovershenno sekretno" (Top Secret), which alleges that he was among the people who ordered the April... MORE

Nezavisimaya gazeta" devoted its main front page article today to analyzing the issue of human rights on the UN Universal Declaration's fiftieth anniversary. The newspaper said that Russia's record was not ideal, and listed by way of illustration everything from the war in Chechnya to... MORE

Fifty years ago today--December 10, 1948--the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Several Russian media have noted the anniversary, and others have run related stories. One concerned a report just released by a presidential commission about the human rights situation... MORE

Countervailing tendencies and continuing tensions in Russian-U.S. relations were reflected similarly in yesterday's talks between Ivanov and Albright. On the positive side, Ivanov reportedly offered assurances that Russia's parliament would ratify the START II strategic arms reduction treaty by the end of December. Albright, who... MORE

Armenian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel Vahram Horkhoruni was gunned down last night near his apartment in downtown Yerevan. Details are sketchy, and the Defense Ministry had no immediate explanation for the assassination (Itar-Tass, December 10). LEADERS APPLAUD RUSSIA-NATO COOPERATION...

In what reports suggested was an unusually warm meeting of NATO's Permanent Joint Council (PJC), Russia and the Western military alliance yesterday celebrated eighteen months of cooperation and hailed their joint peacemaking efforts in the Balkans. NATO Secretary General Javier Solana and U.S. Secretary of... MORE

President Leonid Kuchma has vetoed the law passed on November 19 by the parliament, which would increase the minimum monthly wage from 55 to 148 hryvnyas and the poverty-line monthly income from 74 to 119 hryvnyas (US$16 to US$34). Both changes would have taken effect... MORE

Visiting Georgia on December 7-8, Ukrainian Prime Minister Valery Pustovoytenko called for assigning priority to the Baku-Supsa (Georgia) pipeline, rather than the Baku-Ceyhan (Turkey) route, for the export of Caspian oil. Pustovoytenko urged prompt action to form an international consortium which would create and operate... MORE

The Estonian parliament yesterday adopted amendments to the citizenship law in force since February 26, 1992 (which is a reinstatement of Estonia's pre-Soviet citizenship law). Yesterday's amendments facilitate the acquisition of citizenship by children born in Estonia since that date and henceforth to "stateless" parents... MORE