Belarusyesterday shut and welded the gate of the U.S. ambassador's residence,locking out Ambassador Daniel Speckhardt and his family of four, who stoodoutside holding the American flag. The U.S. Embassy was given until June 10to vacate the premises it has used since 1992 in the Minsk... MORE

In a broadcast to the countryyesterday, Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi outlined the concept of a"radical" military reform and urged its speedy adoption. The reform's maingoals are to reduce military manpower and to modernize the equipment ofremaining troops. According to Lucinschi, the country will need to... MORE

President EduardShevardnadze yesterday charged that "certain forces"--implying Russia'sForeign Ministry--are encouraging Abkhaz intransigence at theGeorgian-Abkhaz talks, which that ministry mediates in Moscow. The meetingsin the Russian Foreign Ministry's building between Georgian ambassador VazhaLortkipanidze and Abkhaz envoy Anri Jergenia are to prepare under Moscow'sauspices a set of... MORE

Kazakhstan's newcapital, Astana, will be presented to foreign dignitaries and investors inan official ceremony on June 10. The city, declared the capital lastDecember, has seen more construction in the past eighteen months than in theprevious thirty years. Still much more remains ahead. Foreign companies have... MORE

The presidentof the gold-mining Kumtor Operating Company, Gerhard Glattes, resigned onJune 8 in the wake of an ecological mishap with rippling effects. On May 20,a company truck had accidentally spilled sodium cyanide into the Barskonriver near the shore of Issyk-Kul lake. The accident polluted the... MORE

The ten business leaders who met with President Boris Yeltsin June 2 met again among themselves the next day, and later issued a joint statement of support for Yeltsin. Their missive, distinguished by its lofty moral tone and the absence of specific content, supports Yeltsin's... MORE

Russian industrialists are skeptical about the economic initiatives of the new government, and show no sign of optimism about a return to economic growth. That is the picture which emerges from the reports for May from the survey of industrial directors conducted by the Russian... MORE

Russian President Boris Yeltsin has expressed concerns over the increasing exodus of ethnic Russians from Russia's "internal" republics in the North Caucasus. The proportion of the ethnic Russian populations in these republics is steadily decreasing, Yeltsin told a meeting of republic leaders in the Kremlin... MORE

The chief of police in Russia's second city, St. Petersburg, was sacked over the weekend. A terse statement issued by the Interior Ministry in Moscow, which controls the appointment, said Lieutenant-General Anatoly Ponidelko had failed to prevent gross violations of the law by officers under... MORE

The Russian government launched, on June 5, its latest effort to win ratification of the START II strategic arms treaty as a group of ministers held a closed door meeting with lawmakers at the State Duma. Representing the government were Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Defense... MORE