Before leaving Chechnya on August 2 for Turkey, President Aslan Maskhadov appointed First Deputy Prime Minister Turpal Atgeriev as acting prime minister. After a brief vacation in Turkey, Maskhadov plans to visit the United States and attend a meeting of the World Islamic Organization. Atgeriev... MORE

The Republic of Adygeya in the North Caucasus has welcomed more than twenty Circassian families from Kosovo. Another twelve families are expected in a couple of weeks. The repatriation of the Kosovo Circassians was brought about on the initiative of Adygeyan President Aslan Dzharimov with... MORE

A spokesman for Russia's Pacific Fleet said yesterday that an amphibious landing by U.S. Marines, scheduled to take place just outside the city of Vladivostok, has been canceled because of protests led by local left-wing political groups. The Marine landing was part of a broader... MORE

The world-famous Russian composer Alfred Schnittke has died in Hamburg at the age of 63. Schnittke was born in the Volga region; his mother was of German descent while his Jewish father had been born in Frankfurt. Schnittke studied at the Moscow Conservatory and his... MORE

At a meeting just held in Palanga (Lithuania), the heads of state security services of the three Baltic states concluded that Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Federal Security Service (FSB) and Russian military intelligence (GRU) are currently intensifying their activities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.... MORE

Interviewed in the Russian Communist newspaper Pravda-5, Belarusan President Alyaksandr Lukashenka predicts the "inevitable unification of the three fraternal republics" Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine in a single state. "No enemies can stop that process," according to Lukashenka, who also specifies the basis for such unification:... MORE

A Georgian naval crew left yesterday for Germany to take delivery of a coastal guard ship, a gift from the German government. Another coastal guard ship is due shortly to arrive in Georgia's port of Poti as a gift from the United States. The command... MORE

In the runup to the presidential election, which they threaten to boycott, Azerbaijani opposition parties and their newspapers have recently raised the issue of alleged Kurdish infiltration of Azerbaijan. A spate of articles in the opposition press claim that supporters of the Kurdistan Workers Party... MORE

The Banque Nationale de Paris has agreed to open a US$70 million credit line for the construction of a second oil terminal at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, Russia's main oil export outlet. The French construction company Bouygues is set to serve as the... MORE

A conference organized by the National Private Pension Funds Association in Almaty on July 30 revealed bottlenecks in Kazakhstan's ambitious pension reform. Obstacles persist, despite a World Bank loan of US$300 million in June which aimed to address social protection, public information and the establishment... MORE