Presidents Guntis Ulmanis of Latvia and Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania met yesterday in the Lithuanian town Panevezis to discuss the crisis in Russian-Latvian relations. Adamkus announced after the meeting that Lithuania supports Latvia's efforts to stabilize the internal situation, to integrate the non-citizen population, and... MORE

According to former Prime Minister and former Security Service chief Yevhen Marchuk, the appointment of Boris Tarasiuk as foreign minister of Ukraine (see Monitor, April 20) forms part of an astute strategy of President Leonid Kuchma geared to next year's presidential elections. As Marchuk pointed... MORE

Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation announced yesterday that it is investigating the possibility of producing commercial vehicles in Russia. Earlier in the day Japan's largest newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, reported that Toyota is likely by the end of the year to start manufacturing multipurpose vans at... MORE

Russian financier Vladimir Potanin told a press conference in Moscow yesterday that, though he thinks the government's starting price for oil company Rosneft is "rather high," his company remains interested in acquiring it. In so doing, Potanin seems effectively to have ensured that the sale... MORE

Russian Prime Minister-designate Sergei Kirienko yesterday assured Washington that Russia's current political turmoil will neither slow economic reform efforts nor adversely effect Russian-U.S. relations. Kirienko's remarks came during a meeting in Moscow with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. Kirienko reportedly told Talbott that... MORE

Moscow and Tokyo have clashed anew over the four South Kuril Islands--only a day after the amicable close of an informal summit meeting between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto (see yesterday's Monitor). The islands were seized by Russia from Japan... MORE

Although the belief that a presidential dissolution of the Duma will have serious economic consequences seems widespread, such a view is not necessarily consistent either with current trends in the Russian economy or with the general patterns of economic recovery in the CIS and East... MORE

As anticipated (see Monitor, March 12) President Imomali Rahmonov has been elected chairman of the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan. At a party congress in Dushanbe on April 18, Rahmonov took over as PDP leader from Abdulmajid Dostiev, first vice-chairman of both the parliament and... MORE

Newly elected President Robert Kocharian is reaffirming his campaign promise to initiate major changes to the constitution. The latest statements of the president and his spokesmen suggest that dozens of amendments may be proposed to a special commission, which is due to convene in the... MORE

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov has categorically denied any Chechen participation in last week's ambush of a Russian military convoy in North Ossetia in which five Russian servicemen, including a senior officer of the General Staff, were killed (see the Monitor, April 17). Maskhadov said disgruntled... MORE