In two recent appointments, Ukraine apparently seeks to ensure union support for the planned reform of the coal sector and to share responsibility for the social costs of that reform. Ukrainian Coal Industry Workers' Union (PRVP) leader Viktor Derzhak has been appointed president of the... MORE

Focusing on reconciliation, the presidents of Ukraine and Poland, Leonid Kuchma and Aleksander Kwasniewski, held talks in Kharkiv on June 26 and 27. The presidents laid the foundation stone of a memorial to Ukrainian and Polish victims of Soviet repression and attended an interconfessional religious... MORE

Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz visited Ajaria on June 26 in order to "get acquainted" with the situation in that autonomous republic of Georgia situated on the Turkish border. Yilmaz stated at a news conference in Batumi that Turkey "recognizes Georgia's territorial integrity unconditionally" and... MORE

Meeting in Bishkek on June 26, the Prime Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan--the member countries of the Central Asian Union (CAU)--failed to reach agreement on the joint use of water resources in the region. The four heads of government had been expected to... MORE

Continuing to voice strong opposition to a proposed NATO military intervention in Kosovo, Russian diplomats remained heavily involved yesterday in efforts to resolve that crisis. They spoke again of last week's meeting between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic--calling it a diplomatic... MORE

Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov yesterday warned that any use of force by NATO to resolve the Kosovo dispute would be "inconceivable." It might, he said, "change the whole international situation." Primakov suggested that NATO military intervention would also be ill-received by the Russian public.... MORE

A Japanese government official yesterday completed a two-day ground-breaking visit to two of the four Kuril Islands, which belong to Russia but are claimed by Japan. Muneo Suzuki, director of the Hokkaido Development Agency, is the first Japanese cabinet official to visit the disputed islands... MORE

The IMF announced yesterday that it had completed its latest review of the Russian economy, paving the way for a US$670 million payment from an existing US$9.2 billion loan. An IMF spokesman said the board had also approved Russia's request to extend the three-year loan... MORE

Krasnoyarsk Krai Governor Aleksandr Lebed says he intends to visit Chechnya. During his campaign for the governorship earlier this year, Lebed had promised to do his best to restore peace to Russia's troubled North Caucasus. The immediate purpose of the upcoming visit, however, is believed... MORE

The regional parliament in Samara Oblast, powerhouse region on the Volga, voted yesterday to legalize the free sale and purchase of land, including agricultural land, in the region. Samara's new law goes even further than the pioneering law adopted last November in neighboring Saratov Oblast,... MORE