According to Eizenstat, Washington approves of Kyiv's proposal to transit part of the "future" Caspian oil via Ukraine to Central Europe. The US Agency for International Development has been assigned to assist Ukraine in drawing up the feasibility study (Ukrainian agencies, September 11 and 12).... MORE

On September 12 up to 1,000 supporters of Azerbaijan's main opposition parties, which are boycotting the upcoming presidential election, attempted to break through police cordons to hold a rally in Baku's central square. The rally was meant to protest against what the opposition regards as... MORE

Washington deems the Ukrainian government's recent steps toward economic reform "laudable but insufficient," Assistant Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat told Ukrainian leaders during a visit to Kyiv. According to Eizenstat, who is responsible for international economic affairs, the US$2.2 billion credit program just approved by... MORE

A commission headed by Russia's Deputy Interior Minister Petr Latyshev has begun an investigation into last weekend's murder of six policemen near the village of Maisky in North Ossetia's Prigorodny District. The murdered policemen were manning a joint Ingush-Ossetian checkpoint near the border between Ingushetia... MORE

The recently created Union of Popular-Patriotic Forces of Belarus, an alliance of leftist and pan-Slavist parties and groups, held its inaugural congress on September 12 in Minsk. Its main components are: the Liberal-Democratic Party, a Belarusan counterpart of Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia; the... MORE

The wreckage of the Ukrainian Zenit-2 rocket that crashed after its launch in Kazakhstan September 10 was found the following day near the border between Russian regions of Altay and Tuva (Fakty I Kommentarii, September 12). Ukrainian media cited officials from Yuzhnoe design bureau of... MORE

President Yeltsin has dismissed his spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, and is reported to be intending to promote his adviser on foreign affairs, Sergei Prikhodko, to the post (Russian agencies, September 12). The personable Yastrzhembsky has served the president ably and his dismissal was greeted with dismay... MORE

President Yeltsin has nominated the acting chief of staff of the Russian government, Igor Shabdurasulov, to be the next general director of Russian Public Television (ORT) (Russian agencies, September 12). In theory, ORT is 51 percent state-owned. In reality, it is run by Boris Berezovsky,... MORE

The most recent episode of a serviceman killing his comrades within the Russian military stands out among similar incidents, which are occurring with disturbing frequency lately. Early Friday, a conscript sailor of the Northern Fleet killed a number of his shipmates and then barricaded himself... MORE

With the departure of Yevgeny Primakov from the Foreign Ministry post, the shake-up in Russia's diplomatic and security establishments continued over the weekend. On September 11 Primakov named Igor Ivanov to replace himself as foreign minister. Ivanov, Russian first deputy foreign minister since January of... MORE