The second team is headed by Deputy Premier Aleksandr Shokhin, who announced yesterday that the government will shortly submit to parliament proposals for "revolutionary changes to the tax system." These will include introduction of a uniform income tax rate, a reduction in value-added tax and... MORE

Russia joined with other UN Security Council members yesterday in passing a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to end the conflict in Kosovo. The vote, 14-0 with China abstaining, is aimed at pressuring Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic into halting military actions by Yugoslav... MORE

Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has promised to announce the main outlines of his government's new economic policy on either September 29 or October 2 (Itar-Tass, September 22). At least two teams of economists are busy drawing up proposals. The first team includes a number... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin has created a presidium or "inner cabinet" of top government ministers and the heads of Russia's eight regional economic associations. Clearly alarmed by the independent actions taken by Russia's regional governors during the recent crisis, the federal government is trying to both... MORE

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev paid an official visit to Romania on September 20-22. His talks with President Emil Constantinescu and Prime Minister Radu Vasile centered on recent Romanian proposals to import and transit massive amounts of Caspian oil. Bucharest has hit upon two ideas. The... MORE

On September 15, Mukhtar Ablyazov, Kazakhstan's Minister for Energy, Industry and Trade, outlined at a meeting of central and local government officials a new industrial policy which would create new state-owned companies in all sectors of industry. The government's draft met a mixed reaction, however.... MORE

Gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying staffers of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) in the center of Abkhazia's capital Sukhumi during the night of September 21-22. Three military observers and the group's Abkhaz driver were wounded. The three officers (two Bangladeshis and one... MORE

Otahon Latifi, one of the top leaders of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), was gunned down yesterday in downtown Dushanbe by unidentified perpetrators. The 62-year-old Latifi headed the UTO's secular-liberal component allied with the Islamic movement. He was also the UTO's top representative on the... MORE

On September 21 the Socialist Party's Political Council adopted a political resolution "On Suspending President Leonid Kuchma's Powers Before the Expiration of His Term." It instructs the party and its organizations to launch a signature-collecting campaign on a proposal to hold a national referendum of... MORE

Ajaria's Supreme Soviet Chairman Aslan Abashidze announced on September 21 that he has met with leaders of the ethnic Armenian organization Javakh, which exercises substantial control in two Armenian-populated districts of Georgia. Abashidze endorsed the Javakh leaders' proposal to transfer the Armenian-populated Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda... MORE