Russian President Boris Yeltsin insists that his government remains in control, despite the recent turmoil on financial markets. Speaking by telephone from his holiday home, Yeltsin told Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko not to take any panic measures and not to devalue the currency. He appealed... MORE

Armenian President Robert Kocharian announced yesterday that he would not personally go to Azerbaijan in response to President Haidar Aliev's invitation. The Armenian leadership has decided to send Prime Minister Armen Darbinian to Baku instead for the international conference on the Europe-Caucasus-Central Asia transport corridor... MORE

President Haidar Aliev and eight presidential aspirants submitted on August 11 the lists of voter signatures required for registration as presidential candidates. A minimum of 50,000 signatures from various parts of the country are required from each candidate. The "quintet" of main opposition leaders (see... MORE

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma yesterday vetoed the Verkhovna Rada's July 23 law which had "forbidden" tariff increases on public transport and on such communal services as public housing rent, heating and electricity. According to that law, tariffs may be raised only after the state pays... MORE

Ukrainian Prime Minister Valery Pustovoytenko yesterday escalated the psychological pressure on officials whose organizations are in arrears on taxes. Pustovoytenko notified directors of enterprises and heads of regional and local administrations that tax debtors would be subjected to punitive measures in the following progression: dispossession... MORE

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB)--the country's chief counter-intelligence agency--appeared to be sending mixed signals yesterday on the subject of an alleged Israeli spy network in Russia. In recent weeks officials of the FSB have accused an Israeli government organization of launching a broad-based effort aimed... MORE

Coal miners in the southern Urals district of Chelyabinsk yesterday agreed to lift their three-week blockade of the Trans-Siberian railway. Late last night, representatives of the Independent Mineworkers' Union signed an agreement with regional Governor Peter Sumin and the chairman of the regional coal company.... MORE

According to Foreign Minister Valdis Birkavs, Russian pressures on Latvia stem from "conflicting perspectives on Latvia's future: the country's clear orientation toward the European Union and NATO reduces Russian influence on Latvia." Moscow reacts, Birkavs observed, by piling up demands on Latvia. He was commenting... MORE

Russian Security Council Secretary Andrei Kokoshin, speaking at the conclusion of a three-day official trip to Israel, intimated yesterday that Moscow should take a more balanced approach in its Middle Eastern diplomacy. Interviewed on Russian television, the Kremlin security chief said that he thought it... MORE

The Russian government is to meet today to consider the draft federal budget for 1999. In a moment of candor, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko told journalists that getting the Duma to accept the government's package of stabilization measures would be child's play compared with... MORE