According to Georgia's National Security Council yesterday, some thirty-five Abkhaz troopers and three Georgian guerrillas were killed in the clashes in Gali district from May 18 through 21. The NSC meeting, chaired by President Eduard Shevardnadze, determined that an 800-strong Abkhaz force "conducting punitive operations... MORE

At a conference just held in Paris under World Bank auspices, the donor countries and financial institutions have pledged to support the transition to a market economy in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. According to Kyrgyz Prime Minister Kubanychbek Zhumaliev, reporting yesterday in Bishkek on the Paris... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin this morning told World Bank President James Wolfensohn that Russia is committed to working with the Bank to overcome its economic problems. Wolfensohn said on his arrival in Moscow yesterday that Russia is undergoing a full-scale financial crisis but, after a meeting... MORE

Russian President Boris Yeltsin appealed for calm yesterday as strikes by coal miners spread across the country and strikers blocked a key section of the Trans-Siberian railway, effectively cutting the country in two. Hundreds of passenger and freight trains are stranded. Strikes spread to Buryatia... MORE

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov announced yesterday that the Communists and their nationalist allies in the State Duma have collected 177 signatures of Duma deputies in support of their bid to impeach President Boris Yeltsin. This is well over the 150 signatures required by the... MORE

Russia was among the countries to benefit this week from a decision by the Clinton administration to waive sanctions against three foreign companies involved in a major gas deal with Iran. The three companies--Total of France, Gazprom of Russia, and Petronas of Malaysia--last year signed... MORE

The Japanese city of Hiroshima announced yesterday that it will bid to serve as host for the Group of Eight summit scheduled for the year 2000, joining several other Japanese cities in doing so. (Kyodo, May 20) Hiroshima's announcement follows by only days this year's... MORE

Some two dozen Russian soldiers became the first combat troops from their country to participate in a NATO peacekeeping exercise this week. The Russian soldiers--said to be marines drawn from the Baltic Fleet--joined some 3,000 other troops from seventeen countries in the Operation Cooperative Jaguar... MORE

The Russian government yesterday rejected an appeal from the Chechen foreign ministry for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Chechnya and the opening of embassies in their respective capitals. The Chechen government has sent similar letters to the foreign ministries of Germany and... MORE

Russian law enforcement agencies have accused well-known Chechen field commander Ruslan Khaikharoev of involvement in the kidnapping of the Russian president's representative in Chechnya, Valentin Vlasov. Official Djohar categorically denies the accusation. (NTV, May 19) Ruslan Khaikharoev, along with Salman Raduev and Jordanian citizen Emir... MORE