On January 1, Kazakhstan endorsed a sweeping reform of its pension system that will, when fully implemented, make it the first CIS member-country to shift responsibility for retirement pensions from the state to the individual. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the ambitious new system is experiencing a... MORE

Armenia's new president, Robert Kocharian, yesterday appointed two key allies, Vahan Hovhanissian, as public affairs coordinator, and Parvir Hairikian, to the combined posts of head of the presidential commission for human rights and chief adviser for constitutional, legal and judicial reforms. Hovhanissian is one of... MORE

Ukraine's new foreign minister, Boris Tarasyuk, chose Poland and Hungary--both in the process of being admitted to NATO--for his visit abroad as minister. Conferring with the presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers in Warsaw and Budapest, Tarasyuk stressed that Ukraine has no objection to the... MORE

The Georgian parliament yesterday approved President Eduard Shevardnadze's choice of Colonel Davit Tevzadze as defense minister. Tevzadze replaces Lieutenant-General Vardiko Nadibaidze, who had to resign on April 27 after three years in that post because of security lapses (see The Monitor, April 28). Tevzadze, an... MORE

Presidents Boris Yeltsin of Russia, Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus, Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan and Prime Minister Kubanychbek Zhumaliev of Kyrgyzstan (representing President Askar Akaev, who is currently visiting China) held in Moscow a summit of the quadripartite Customs Union yesterday. The leaders failed to discuss... MORE

Nothing seems to have come of the demonstrations and protests that retired General Lev Rokhlin's movement "For the Defense of the Army" was threatening to organize on April 27. In Volgograd, activists were arrested when they tried to distribute leaflets to servicemen in the garrison;... MORE

Investigators of the Military Prosecutor's Office's Main Directorate in the Northern Caucasus working on the case of the raid on the Russian military convoy in North Ossetia are reported to be increasingly convinced that the raid was the work of Chechen field commander Emir Khattab.... MORE

Several top Russian officials, including President Boris Yeltsin, have suggested publicly in recent days that Russia is unlikely to make any territorial concessions over the four disputed South Kuril Islands. Yeltsin's remark, in which he reportedly ruled out the possibility of Russia giving up the... MORE

Rosvooruzhenie, the official Russian state arms trading company, announced yesterday that former Defense Minister Pavel Grachev has been appointed the company's chief military adviser. The appointment reportedly came on the recommendation of President Boris Yeltsin. Speaking to reporters yesterday, Rosvooruzhenie director Yevgeny Ananev said that... MORE

There were few surprises yesterday when Russian President Yeltsin announced the first appointments to the new government. (RTR, April 28) As expected, Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Defense Minister Igor Sergeev and Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov were reappointed while Sergei Stepashin was named interior minister. Also... MORE