The disputed Kuril Islands, meanwhile, have remained in the news over the past few days for several other reasons. On October 30, a large Japanese delegation departed for the islands carrying a shipload of humanitarian aid for the islands' residents. The cargo reportedly included some... MORE

Sources in Moscow reiterated yesterday that ailing Russian President Boris Yeltsin will indeed meet with Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi during next week's Russian-Japanese summit meeting in the Russian capital. Diplomatic sources suggested, however, that the official portion of Obuchi's visit will be shortened by... MORE

Justice Minister Pavel Krasheninnikov sent Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov a letter Monday warning him against further public insults directed at the Russian president. Zyuganov was quoted as saying Saturday (October 31) that Yeltsin "is not managing anything, he is not responsible to the citizens, he... MORE

The Yabloko letter claimed that First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov illegally granted Vimpelcom--the company running one of Russia's largest mobile telephone networks--the right to operate an additional mobile telephone system, because a tender was not held for the additional license. The company's president denied... MORE

Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky kept up his attack on alleged governmental corruption Monday (November 2), when he handed over to Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov a parliamentary interrogatory containing questions over alleged corruption among members of the cabinet. The document, which was made public Monday, was... MORE

The agreements signed by Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbaev and Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov over the weekend are unlikely to diminish the traditional rivalry between the two states. On Saturday(October 31) Nazarbaev and Karimov signed agreements on eternal friendship and increased economic integration for the 1998-2005... MORE

The balance of political forces which took shape in Armenia when Robert Kocharian became president earlier this year, and which seemed to promise internal political stability, shows signs of breaking down. On October 31 in Yerevan the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutiun (ARFD), a major ally of... MORE

Presidents Haidar Aliev of Azerbaijan, Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia, Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan, Suleiman Demirel of Turkey and Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, joined by U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, signed in Ankara on October 29 a statement of strong support for the planned Baku-Ceyhan (Turkey)... MORE

Three thousand supporters of the Belarusan national-democratic opposition joined yesterday a 10-kilometer mourning march from downtown Minsk to Kurapaty forest, where thousands of victims of Soviet repression lie buried in common graves. Addressing the mourners, Popular Front leaders Vintsuk Vyachorka and Yuri Khadyka remarked that... MORE

Following President Guntis Ulmanis' decision to remove the Armed Forces Commander, Juris Eihmanis, on financial misappropriation charges (see the Monitor, October 27), Prime Minister Guntars Krasts is personally cleaning up the Defense Ministry. On October 27, Krasts dismissed Defense Minister Talavs Jundzis for tolerating lack... MORE