Forty-three Ukrainian parliamentary deputies have signed an international appeal in support of Andrei Klimau and Uladzimir Kudzinau, the arrested deputies of the legitimate Belarusan parliament. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka forcibly disbanded that parliament in 1996, declaring the parliamentary immunity of its members to have lapsed. But... MORE

Following the failure of the CIS reform conference and the cancellation of the CIS Prime Ministers' September 24-25 meeting (see the Monitor, September 16), the CIS summit scheduled for October 8-9 in Moscow is now in jeopardy. In a rush to rescue it, Russia's Sverdlovsk... MORE

Russian military forces in Kaliningrad region will accept food as humanitarian aid from Lithuania, says Colonel Valery Vengrov, head of those forces' food supply service. Vengrov refused to disclose the current state of the forces' food stocks, on the grounds of military secrecy. He admitted,... MORE

Russia's Glavkosmos space service said on September 15 that it still could not determine whether North Korea had launched a missile or a satellite on August 31. According to a senior Glavkosmos official, Gennady Khromov, Russia lacks reliable information on whether the August 31 launch... MORE

Russia's prosecutor general is to ask Russia's State Duma to strip Nadyr Khachilaev, chairman of the Union of Muslims of Russia, of the immunity from prosecution that he enjoys as a member of the Russian parliament. It is not known what the charges will be,... MORE

Russia's Strategic Missile Troops (SMT) announced yesterday the successful test-firing of an RS-12M Topol intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). According to the SMT press service, the missile was launched from the Russian cosmodrome at Plesetsk in northern Russia and hit a target in the Kamchatka area... MORE

Recently named Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov used an address to his former colleagues yesterday to emphasize that Russia's diplomats must continue to defend the country's interests in the international arena. Primakov, who served as foreign minister for nearly three years, said that the primary... MORE

Russian President Boris Yeltsin has appointed Aleksandr Shokhin, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Vladimir Bulgak as deputy prime ministers in the government of Yevgeny Primakov (Russian agencies, September 16). All are centrist politicians with close ties to former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Therefore, while Chernomyrdin himself is... MORE

Delegations from the European Union and the IMF are in Moscow today, hoping to discover what the economic policies of Yevgeny Primakov's new government will be. Primakov has only one more day if he is to meet his promise to announce his cabinet by the... MORE

At least seven Abkhaz were killed and five were wounded yesterday in Gali district as a result of a road ambush, apparently by Georgian guerrillas. According to Abkhaz authorities, the victims were peasants en route to fieldwork (Russian agencies, September 15). CREDIT APPROVED FOR VITAL... MORE