Moody's Investors Service has lowered Moldova's sovereign rating to B-2 for hard-currency obligations and to B-3 for hard-currency bank deposits. The previous ratings were the relatively promising ones of Ba-2 and Ba-3, respectively. Moody's had begun rating Moldova last year. The company explained the lowered... MORE

Eight Abkhaz civilians were killed yesterday in Gali district by the explosion of a remote-control land mine. The incident follows the killing of five Russian soldiers in a similar explosion in the night of July 13-14. (See the Monitor, July 14) Those soldiers were buried... MORE

Russia's defense minister, Marshal Igor Sergeev, held talks with Armenia's top political and military leadership on July 14 and 15 in Yerevan. The discussions are said to have focused on: (1) a plan to "upgrade the armament and equipment" of Russian forces stationed in Armenia;... MORE

The nascent flotilla of Kazakhstan has just taken delivery of the third Kazakh-made combat cutter, built (as were the first two) at the Zenith shipyard in Uralsk, a city in western Kazakhstan. Two similar vessels are currently under construction there. The country had inherited from... MORE

The eldest son of Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev and the youngest daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev became engaged yesterday in Kazakhstan's city of Almaty. They enacted a traditional Central Asian engagement ritual and will be married in a few days' time in Kyrgyzstan. The... MORE

Russian President Boris Yeltsin met yesterday with leaders of the State Duma to urge them to approve his government's stabilization program, which parliament is due to debate today and tomorrow. In an effort to sweeten the pill, Yeltsin hinted that he will not run for... MORE

Miners' leaders in Anzhero-Sudzhensk and Yurga, two towns where striking coal miners have been blockading the Trans-Siberian Railroad since July 3, yesterday rejected an appeal by local governor Aman Tuleev to remove their pickets and call off the blockade. In the town of Osinniki, however,... MORE

Izvestia reports on a recent visit by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to Tula Oblast, south of Moscow, during which Luzhkov reportedly offered to invest a considerable amount of money in the Tula's battered economy. Tula has been a center of arms production since the time... MORE

Chechnya's Shariah Court has begun to examine the case of maverick field commander Salman Raduev, who is charged with "anticonstitutional activities" and "attempting to overthrow the legally elected government." The court must decide whether to Raduev should be arrested. (Kommersant-daily, July 14; also see the... MORE

On July 11, Adallo Aliev was arrested in the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt and charged with illegal possession of a firearm. Aliev is deputy chairman of the Congress of the Peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan (CPCD). He is also a well-known poet and editor-in-chief of... MORE