The long-overdue appointment and confirmation of a prosecutor general of Ukraine highlights the state's chronic weakness in dealing with the interrelated phenomena of official corruption and organized crime. That post had been technically vacant for two years because the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) refused to confirm... MORE

German President Roman Herzog has addressed a message of gratitude to Armenian President Robert Kocharian for the return of German cultural assets held since World War II in Armenia. These assets--art works, old manuscripts and library collections--had been allocated by Moscow to the Armenian SSR... MORE

President Haidar Aliev's current visit to Britain has resulted in the signing of three big oil contracts between the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and international partners, totaling a multibillion sum. 1. Abikh bloc. The partners are SOCAR, British Petroleum and Norway's Statoil, with... MORE

The UN Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) has pulled back all of its personnel from the countryside to its base in Dushanbe, following the assassination of four mission members in Labijar. (See the Monitor, July 22) The slaying was described as "the worst in... MORE

A regional court in Horezm, western Uzbekistan, has sentenced three Islamic believers to prison terms of ten, nine, and five years, respectively, for allegedly promoting "Wahhabism." The men were specifically accused of urging women to wear the veil, of attempting to convert people of other... MORE

There has been little comment on President Yeltsin's July 17 decree hiking import tariffs by 3 percent across the board with effect from August 15. (Kommersant-daily, July 21) This is surprising in view of the fact that for the past several years, the international community... MORE

Data from Goskomstat for the first half of 1998 show Russian GDP down by 0.5 percent compared to the first half of 1997. Thus the recovery proclaimed by many Western observers in mid-1997 has failed to materialize. Industrial output was also static, rising by a... MORE

Russian diplomats yesterday played up talks in Beijing scheduled to start today between Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov and top Chinese leaders. Primakov, who will remain in Beijing until July 26, is expected to meet there with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji... MORE

Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev and his German counterpart, Volker Ruehe, completed two days of talks at a resort city in the Russian Caucasus yesterday. Bonn had reportedly requested that the meeting be both informal and confidential. Reporters were admitted only for the concluding press... MORE

Yesterday, when two additional Russian journalists were said to have been seized briefly by rebel Kosovo Albanian forces, the Russian embassy in Yugoslavia lodged an official protest in connection with the seizure of third Russian journalist that was reported to have occurred on July 17.... MORE