Chechnya's acting Prime Minister Shamil Basaev gave his resignation to President Aslan Maskhadov on July 3. Basaev said that he had set himself a six-month term and was determined to leave office when it expired. Pointing out that he was appointed "by the president, not... MORE

On July 1, traffic resumed on the highway between Chechnya and Georgia. Chechnya has great hopes of the highway, since it is the only road bypassing Russia and connecting Chechnya with the outside world, thereby breaching Russia's attempted blockade of the republic. (Kommersant-daily, July 2)... MORE

Britain's ambassador to Russia appeared on Chechen TV on July 2 to appeal for help from Chechen residents in securing the release of Camilla Carr and Jon James, two young British aid workers taken hostage in Chechnya on July 3 last year. The ambassador said... MORE

Ingushetia's acting interior minister Daud Korigov has been released from pre-trial detention in Moscow. Arrested four months ago when he arrived in the capital to be confirmed in his ministerial post, Korigov was accused of abuse of office and of encouraging Ingushetia's police to act... MORE

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) and the Narodovlastie group of Duma deputies hosted in Moscow an "International Conference of National-Patriotic Forces" on July 4. Delegations of Communist and hard-left parties from eleven former Soviet republics attended. CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov and ex-USSR... MORE

In an interview for the Chinese and Kazakh press, President Nursultan Nazarbaev described the CIS as "marking time forever, stuck in empty phraseology about integration and incapable of any real political or economic action." Nazarbaev singled out the failure to create a "common economic space"... MORE

Lithuanian and Polish officers conducted a staff exercise in the Lithuanian town of Alytus from July 1 through July 3. A follow-up exercise is scheduled to be held in the Polish town of Orzysz, Suwalki district, near the mutual border. The exercises form part of... MORE

According to Kremlin foreign policy coordinator Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Russian regional governors ought to avoid meeting Latvian government officials in order to demonstrate Russia's displeasure with the situation of Latvia's "Russian-speaking population." Yastrzhembsky publicly urged the governors of both St. Petersburg and the Pskov region to... MORE

Oleksandr Bandurka of the pro-presidential People's Democratic Party received 222 votes in the latest balloting for the post of chairman of the Ukrainian parliament. Barely short of the 226 votes needed to win, the score was the best yet achieved by the coalition of centrist... MORE

Special commissions, recently created by the Moldovan parliament and the Transdniester Supreme Soviet, met for the first time on July 3 in Tiraspol. The commissions are empowered to seek a "normalization" of relations and to work out the legal and political status of Transdniester. Chisinau... MORE