Late on August 6, Kazakhstan's National Bank Chairman Kadyrjan Damitov announced a rise in the bank's refinancing rate from 18.5 to 20.5 percent. The move is seen as a reaction to losses incurred by the republic as a result of sharp drops in the prices... MORE

Chairing the second part of the Ukrainian government's "expanded session" on August 7, Prime Minister Valery Pustovoytenko again assailed regional administration officials and state enterprise directors whose entities owe back taxes to the state. Pustovoytenko warned the nearly 2,000 attending executives--most of whose organizations presumably... MORE

On August 7, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma signed a decree ordering drastic cuts in state budget expenditures. The effect of this would be a reduction in the overall budget deficit in 1998 to 2.5 percent of the projected GDP. The deepest cuts are being made... MORE

In statements made on August 6 and 7, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Valery Nesterushkin suggested that Russia might officially grant Latvia nondiscriminatory trade status if Latvia consents to prolonging Russia's lease on the Skrunda antimissile early-warning radar. Conversely, Nesterushkin indicated, Russia would withhold the nondiscriminatory... MORE

Allegations of Russia's continuing role in efforts by Iran to develop ballistic missiles appeared to dominate talks launched this weekend between Russian Security Council Secretary Andrei Kokoshin and top Israeli leaders. Kokoshin reportedly met twice over the weekend with Israeli Industry and Trade Minister Natan... MORE

On August 7, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolai Afanasevsky, in Yugoslavia for talks with Serbian and ethnic Albanian leaders, strongly reiterated Moscow's opposition to a proposed NATO military intervention in Kosovo. "We believe there is no military solution here," Afanasevsky was quoted as saying after... MORE

The first tranche of a new US$1.5 billion World Bank loan is expected to arrive in Russia today, having been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors last week. It will be paid in three tranches of US$300 million today, another US$500 million by the... MORE

According to Kommersant-daily, Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko made Duma speaker Gennady Seleznev an attractive offer last week, when he persuaded Seleznev to interrupt the Duma's summer vacation and return to Moscow on August 19-20 to debate the government's stabilization measures. (Kommersant-daily, August 6; see also... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin has rejected proposals put forward by the State Duma on transferring the president's powers to the prime minister in the event that ill health prevents the president from exercising his duties. (RTR, August 8) The proposals have already been turned down by... MORE

An Armenian state prosecutor yesterday gunned down the country's Prosecutor General, Henrik Khachatrian, and apparently committed suicide afterward. The assassin, Aram Karapetian, was a senior prosecutor in the criminal investigations department of the Prosecutor General's Office. He had previously been Armenia's chief transportation prosecutor. President... MORE