As the United States moved once again to build up its military might in the Persian Gulf, Russia yesterday restated its position that the latest crisis over Iraq can still be resolved by diplomatic means. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters in Moscow that... MORE

The Kuril Islands territorial dispute--the primary obstacle to improved Russian-Japanese relations since World War II--remained at the center of press speculations yesterday over today's summit meeting in Moscow between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. The two men met for nearly... MORE

The dispute involving calls to control the press is directly related to the issue of anti-Semitism: members of the communist and nationalist opposition have long charged that Jews are over-represented in the Russian media. Meanwhile, Albert Makashov, the ex-Soviet general and Communist Party (KPRF) deputy... MORE

The issue of freedom of the press was the subject of both debate and the headlines in Moscow on Wednesday. Three leaders of the leftist opposition in the State Duma--Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), Nikolai Ryzhkov of the Popular... MORE

Georgia's Chief of the General Staff, Major-General Johnny Pirtskhalaishvili, and U.S. Army Colonel Alan Stolberg, on behalf of the Pentagon, signed yesterday in Tbilisi a program of military cooperation for 1999. The document envisages a total of approximately thirty measures of joint activities and U.S.... MORE

Georgia's Supreme Court yesterday sentenced Jaba Ioseliani, leader of the banned organization Mkhedrioni [Knights], to eleven years of detention, and fourteen codefendants to various terms of imprisonment. Ioseliani and most of the codefendants had been in pretrial detention since late 1995. Former State Security chief... MORE

President Leonid Kuchma yesterday issued a decree approving Ukraine's state program of cooperation with NATO for the period 1999-2001. Drafted by an interagency committee, the program outlines joint Ukraine-NATO activities in the spheres of foreign policy, military security, airspace control, defense industry and research, information... MORE

Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) yesterday rejected the registration application of six initiative committees which intend to launch a referendum on deposing President Leonid Kuchma from office. The Hromada and Socialist parties jointly created these six committees recently in five regions of Ukraine. They seem... MORE

A day before Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's long-awaited arrival in Moscow, Russian and Japanese diplomats continued to spar yesterday over both the Kuril Islands territorial dispute and proposed Japanese financial assistance for Russia. Obuchi was scheduled to arrive in the Russian capital last night... MORE

As Moscow prepared yesterday for the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, Russian political leaders and diplomats were also anticipating upcoming high-level talks with Russia's two major Asian partners. The Russian presidential press service yesterday confirmed that Chinese President Jiang Zemin will arrive in... MORE