Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers yesterday criticized the government of Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov for failing to follow through on previous economic reform plans. Summers also suggested that, as a result, Russia would be less likely in the future to be the recipient of... MORE

The government today is presenting its anticrisis economic program to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament. Although the session is closed to the press, NTV television reported this morning that First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov had outlined two possible scenarios for... MORE

In the wake of Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky's charge that the Primakov government is mired in corruption, that issue continues to be a major topic of discussion. Vyacheslav Lebedev, chairman of Russia's Supreme Court, said Russia's courts are ready to investigate the alleged corruption of... MORE

Phil Meek, president of the joint U.S.-Kazakhstani oil company Chevron-Munaigas, told a press conference in Kazakhstan on November 3 that the Kazakhstani government has approved the feasibility study for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). A day later, President of Chevron Overseas, Richard Matzke, informed Reuters... MORE

Police clashed with opposition demonstrators in downtown Baku twice over the weekend. On November 7, some 2000 supporters of the National Independence Party staged an unauthorized demonstration to protest the official results of the October 11 presidential election. Antiriot troops used force to break up... MORE

Tajik government forces gained the upper hand against former Colonel Mahmud Hudoberdiev's rebels in Leninabad region over the weekend. Superior in numbers and firepower, the government troops yesterday reestablished control over the rebel stronghold Hujand (the country's second-largest city), the nearby Chkalov military airport and... MORE

Numerically, this year's rallies marking the anniversary of the October revolution of 1917 did not differ much from those of a year ago. According to official figures, 90,000 participated this year. In 1997 participants numbered 80,000. The number of law enforcement personnel ensuring public order... MORE

On November 5 a federal grand jury indicted David Sheldon Boone, a former analyst with the U.S. National Security Agency, on charges of having spied for the Soviet KGB. Boone allegedly received US$60,000 from the Soviets in return for classified information which he is said... MORE

Prime Minister Guntars Krasts, in his concurrent capacity as Acting Defense Minister, has appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Raimonds Graube to the post of acting commander of Latvia's armed forces, in place of Colonel Juris Eihmanis. Graube has until now been the home guard commander, in which post... MORE

Russian support for Kurdish rebels--official or unofficial--is only one issue roiling Russian-Turkish relations these days, however. This past weekend another source of conflict between the two countries--a deal by which Moscow is to deliver S-300 air defense complexes to the Greek Cypriot government on Cyprus--was... MORE