There was more bad news for the Russian government yesterday when it became apparent that Rosneft, the last major Russian oil company still in state hands, has failed to attract any buyers. Yesterday was the deadline for the submission of bids for 75 percent of... MORE

Moscow and Oslo looked to get bilateral relations back on track this week as King Harald V of Norway and his wife, Queen Sonja, began a five-day visit to Russia that includes stops in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Murmansk. The visit, the first by a... MORE

As he has done so often in the past during meetings with foreign leaders, President Boris Yeltsin managed--a day after the May 26 visit of Norway's king--to announce a policy initiative that subsequently required "clarification" from other Russian officials. On this occasion Yeltsin mentioned the... MORE

After a long chase, a Russian border forces vessel on May 25 fired on a Chinese fishing boat. The attack left two fishermen dead and five wounded. The incident took place some 120 miles southeast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Russian vessel began chasing the... MORE

Russia might not have been successful in its efforts to halt NATO's eastern expansion, but a joint Russian-Ukrainian aircraft project is threatening to derail one of NATO's most ambitious joint procurement projects. Seven NATO nations--France, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Turkey and Spain--have been working... MORE

The Defense Ministers of the Nordic countries and of the Baltic states met in Norway on May 25 and 26 to discuss the Baltic region's security. They reviewed progress on the Estonian-Latvian-Lithuanian joint defense projects assisted by the Nordic countries and the United States: Baltbat... MORE

Ukraine has become the third country--after Russia and Turkey--to officially enter the competition for transiting Caspian oil to international markets. The Ukrainian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Boris Alekseyenko, announced this at a news conference in Baku, following the talks held there by a delegation of Ukraine's... MORE

At a three-day session ending on May 23, the Tajik parliament banned all religious parties and political organizations. Ostensibly aimed at combating "fundamentalism," the ban forms part of the new law on the operation of political parties. It leaves in place the interdiction imposed in... MORE

With a focus on the industrial turmoil shaking Russia's coal-producing regions and the recent political unrest in the North Caucasus, President Boris Yeltsin presided yesterday over an emergency meeting of Russia's Security Council. The situation in both trouble spots quieted over the weekend, but Security... MORE

Meanwhile, the situation in Makhachkala, capital of the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, appears to have returned to normal after last week's turmoil, in which armed gunmen seized a government building in the center of the city. The gunmen, supporters of the republic's influential Khachilaev... MORE