First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov said that the government's anticrisis program would be both finished by the end of the week and considered at a cabinet meeting on Saturday (October 31). Maslyukov had earlier promised to provide officials of the IMF with the program's... MORE

Like the politicians, many in the media are already acting as if Yeltsin has been replaced by Primakov. "Vremya-MN" noted in today's edition (October 28) that the prime minister, in his visit earlier this week to Vienna to fill in for the ailing president, was... MORE

With Boris Yeltsin undergoing, in his spokesman's words, "a course of rehabilitation procedures" at the Barvikha sanatorium outside Moscow, leading Russian politicians began floating various plans to reduce the power of the presidency. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov called for an immediate conference of representatives... MORE

Not unexpectedly, on October 20, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev declared his candidacy for the January 10, 1999 presidential elections. Ever since he called for early elections on October 8 (see the Monitor, October 13), Nazarbaev has been keen to seem reluctant to re-stand for president--until,... MORE

Georgia's State Security Minister Jemal Gakhokidze resigned yesterday in the aftermath of the Zviadist-military mutiny. He had been one of the officials mandated to negotiate with the rebels and was briefly held hostage before they gave up (see the Monitor, October 20, 21). Gakhokidze's security... MORE

Kyrgyzstan's State Customs Committee apparently seeks to thwart the government's order to return to Iran the train loaded with mostly Russian arms and ammunition, which were transiting Kyrgyzstan en route to Afghanistan. The Kyrgyz Customs Committee had impounded the cargo aboard seventeen railroad cars as... MORE

In a broadcast to the country yesterday, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze charged that "an evil power" and its "special services" had helped organize and finance the recent Zviadist-military putsch. Without naming that power, Shevardnadze remarked that it acts "both outside and within Georgia" to destabilize... MORE

The NATO-sponsored Sea Breeze-98 exercise began yesterday in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa, to continue in waters off nearby Pivdenny and at Shiroky Lan training range near Mikolayiv until November 4. Six NATO countries and the five non-NATO countries of the Black Sea are... MORE

Summing up his just-completed visit to the United States, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus reported that he had not received any guarantees from the Clinton administration that Lithuania would be invited to begin accession talks with NATO at the alliance's Washington summit, which is scheduled for... MORE

Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis yesterday demanded the resignation of the Armed Forces' commander, Juris Eihmanis. A financial audit has apparently determined that Eihmanis spent the equivalent of US$75,000 of defense budget funds for refurbishing his Riga apartment. Eihmanis and several senior officers are now being... MORE