Russia's economy finally shows signs of bottoming out from its eight-year recession. Monetary indicators appear stable, although the federal government continues to run a high deficit. The government may face a problem in financing the mounting public debt in future years. Budget performance was to... MORE

The Kremlin announced yesterday that President Boris Yeltsin has ordered the government to tighten controls over the export of military and dual-purpose technologies (technologies with civilian and military applications). According to presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Yeltsin described such export controls as a "top priority" of... MORE

Chinese authorities reported yesterday in Beijing a recent clash between the police and Muslim "separatists" in China's Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region. According to the official report, two Muslims were killed and four captured, one Han Chinese policeman was killed and one wounded in a gun battle... MORE

At the instigation of President Islam Karimov, the Uzbek parliament on May 1 changed the law "on freedom of conscience and religious associations." While the previous law, adopted in 1991, reflected the liberalization of the perestroika era, the new law is significantly more restrictive. It... MORE

Through an article in Kyrgyzstan's leading Russian-language newspaper, Vecherny Bishkek, the State Security Ministry has publicized details of a double conspiracy it claims to have uncovered. The ministry has arrested dozens of members of a group which was allegedly spreading "Wahhabi" religious teaching in Kyrgyzstan... MORE

Russia's Office of the Prosecutor General announced yesterday that it refuses to extradite Major-General Shahin Musaev to Azerbaijan. The prosecutor general claimed that Musaev was in the possession of military secrets from the time of his service in the USSR armed forces and can therefore... MORE

The Uzbek parliament resolved on May 1 to invalidate credit agreements concluded in 1992 and 1993 with Russia, and under which Uzbekistan received 180 billion rubles worth of credits in cash and commodities. The debt was later restructured in a bilateral agreement in March 1997.... MORE

The communist faction in the Crimean parliament has appealed to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada and the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly "to help restore the basic elements of law and order in the work of the Crimean parliament." The communists, who won thirty-four of... MORE

Ukraine's National Atomic Energy authority yesterday dismissed the director-general of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, Serhyi Parashin, from his post. Energoatom President Nur Nigmatullin accused Parashin of insubordination, of exceeding his powers, and of appealing directly to President Leonid Kuchma and to the public in... MORE

Russian trade policy would appear to be more successful in attracting foreign investment into the country's automobile industry. High tariffs on imported autos and auto components, combined with tariff waivers for major foreign investors, could yield large increases in direct foreign investment by a number... MORE