The Kremlin has agreed to allow Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly, to pay its taxes in food, which Belarus and Ukraine will send to the Russian government in lieu of cash payments for gas supplies. According to an agreement signed last week, Gazprom will allow... MORE

In the some eighty remaining days before the prematurely called January 10 Kazakhstani elections (see the Monitor, July 13 and October 19), mass media will play an important part in shaping public opinion. Relative to other Central Asian states, Kazakhstan's media is relatively free. Nevertheless,... MORE

Georgian authorities report the apprehension of approximately a dozen Zviadists, military and civilian, who were involved in the October 19 abortive putsch (see the Monitor, October 20, 21). Several times that number remain at large in small groups or individually in Mingrelia, supposedly a Zviadist... MORE

The United States and Turkish governments on the one side and the British-Dutch Shell Company on the other side have simultaneously presented Turkmenistan with rival plans for gas export pipelines. President Saparmurat Niazov conferred in Ashgabat with Turkish Energy Minister Cumhur Ersumer on October 20... MORE

Russian authorities yesterday caught Estonian citizen Ville Sonn in the act of "gathering visual intelligence" at a military base in the Pskov region near Estonia. Considering that the man "did not cause substantial harm" and allegedly "admitted to having acted on assignment from the Estonian... MORE

On a political and business tour of Siberian regions, Belarusan President Alyaksandr Lukashenka demanded higher rewards than heretofore for his services as an ally of Russia. Addressing the workforce of the Polyot defense plant in Omsk, Lukashenka claimed that Belarus spends US$1 billion annually on... MORE

Gaidar, who heads Russia's Democratic Choice party, said Russia's left had not "the slightest idea" how to pull the economy out of crisis. He would, he added, be "extremely surprised" if the Primakov government received further IMF funding (Russian agencies, October 22). Yet Deputy Finance... MORE

The Primakov government, like its predecessors before and after the Great October Revolution, is looking to the alcohol trade as a source of funds. State Tax Services chief Georgy Boos said yesterday that revenues from alcohol excise taxes will increase by 1.5 billion rubles, or... MORE

Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov said Thursday (October 22) that the government had not written foreign sources of financing into its budget for the fourth quarter of 1998. There was "no point in hiding" the fact, he continued, that the government will have to print money... MORE

A series of disagreements, however, has also arisen. Although Sergeev did not elaborate in his public remarks yesterday, previous reports have suggested dissatisfaction on Moscow's side over consumer goods--not always of the best quality--provided by China in partial payment for the Russian military hardware (Segodnya,... MORE