The recently appointed executive secretary of the CIS, Boris Berezovsky, has embarked on a mediation mission between Georgia's central government and Abkhazia. On June 3 and 4, Berezovsky held two rounds of talks with President Eduard Shevardnadze and other officials in Tbilisi, and two rounds... MORE

Addressing the second annual Kazakhstan Investment Summit, which opened yesterday in Almaty, President Nursultan Nazarbaev sketched a picture of the country's wealth in metallic ores. According to Nazarbaev, Kazakhstan holds 30 percent of the world's proven reserves of chromium, 25 percent of manganese, 19 percent... MORE

The Central Bank managed to sell 5.8 billion (US$950 million) worth of treasury bills on Wednesday June 3, averting the feared market meltdown. However, the government did have to draw down its reserves to buy an additional 2.6 billion rubles of bonds falling due which... MORE

Differences between Russia and the United States over UN policy toward Iraq seem likely to sharpen following a briefing by UNSCOM weapons inspectors delivered to Security Council members yesterday. According to Bill Richardson, Washington's ambassador to the UN, "UNSCOM has dealt a devastating blow to... MORE

Disarmament experts from Russia joined their counterparts from the United States, China, Britain, and France in Geneva yesterday as the UN Security Council's five permanent members began efforts to forge a common approach toward easing tensions in South Asia. Yesterday's meeting is to be followed... MORE

The governor of Russia's Far Eastern Sakhalin region weighed in again yesterday with a demand that federal authorities make no territorial concessions to Japan in talks on the status of the four disputed Kuril Islands. Igor Farkhutdinov praised proposals for "wide-ranging economic and cultural cooperation... MORE

Russia's new Justice Minister Pavel Krashennikov has set off a fresh row over the use of the death penalty. Last week, he declared that it was too soon for the country to abolish capital punishment and that opinion polls show that the majority of the... MORE

Data released at a press conference on June 2 revealed that Russian citizens are increasingly turning to the courts to resolve civil disputes. Civil lawsuits increased by 29 percent over the past year. The number of cases relating to labor issues, especially appeals for payment... MORE

An irritable President Boris Yeltsin has expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Constitutional Court, in particular, its slowness in delivering judgments. Yeltsin was especially infuriated by the Court's ruling in April this year that he must sign into law legislation that seeks to rule out the... MORE

On the eve of today's decisive vote by the Latvian parliament on amendments to the citizenship law, Prime Minister Guntars Krasts appealed to the European Union (EU) for a clearer understanding of Latvia's position vis-a-vis Russia. Addressing a session of the Latvia-European Union interparliamentary committee... MORE