The new Russian government's economics czar raised some disturbing questions about Moscow's current economic priorities yesterday when he told reporters that Russia must build dozens of new nuclear missiles in the years to come while simultaneously modernizing its strategic control, early warning and space intelligence... MORE

The question, as always, however, is where the money will actually come from. State Tax Service head Georgy Boos announced Tuesday that Russian tax collection had plunged in September for the second straight month. Only 9.3 billion rubles (US$580 million) were collected last month--almost 2... MORE

If there were any lingering doubts that Moscow might be convinced to support NATO strikes on Yugoslavia, they were erased yesterday by Russia's foreign minister. Igor Ivanov, named to the Foreign Ministry post less than a month ago, told reporters that Russia would veto any... MORE

In his televised address Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Primakov assured Russians that there would be no shortage of food staples this winter, saying they would be "fully provided with vegetables, fruit and potatoes." He also said that the government would make good on its promise... MORE

The day of national protest began peacefully, according to reports on Russian television. On Wednesday morning, NTV television showed footage of protesters marching peacefully under Soviet banners in the Siberian mining town of Kemerovo (the Kuzbass region is a number of time zones ahead of... MORE

Also yesterday, Lukashenka claimed that an assassination attempt against him had been hatched inside the Drazdy diplomatic compound, situated next to the presidential residence. "My life hung by a thread. The terrorist act was being prepared a few meters from here," Lukashenka charged. He claimed... MORE

Interviewed in yesterday's issue of the Moscow daily Nezavisimaya gazeta, Zbigniew Brzezinski pointed out that Ukrainian independence is a precondition to Russia's "painless transformation from an imperial power to a nation-state." Brzezinski observed that Russia's economic problems are more profound and longer-lasting than those of... MORE

A consortium of four leading Japanese companies--Itochu, Nissho Iwai, Marubeni and JGC Corp., the latter as project operator--has been awarded a contract worth US$ 414 million (56 billion yen) to build and equip a polypropylene production plant for Turkmenneftegas. Japanese companies will additionally supply water... MORE

In his televised national address on September 30, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev announced his intention to further streamline government to increase ministerial accountability and government effectiveness (Russian agencies, September 30; Panorama [Almaty], October 2). In its July 1996 report, the World Bank ranked Kazakhstan among... MORE

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued a statistical update on the repatriation of Crimean Tatars to Ukraine yesterday. It said that nearly 250,000 Tatars have returned to Crimea from Uzbekistan, where most of this population had been deported in... MORE