The high command of Russia's border troops held a special policy meeting in Dushanbe and inspected Russian troops on the Tajik-Afghan border on March 30-31. The newly appointed head of Russia's Security Council, Andrey Kokoshin, chaired the meeting, which was also attended by senior officials... MORE

Georgia's Internal Affairs Ministry announced yesterday that Gocha Esebua was killed that day in a gun battle with the police in a village near Zugdidi. Several of Esebua's companions were captured. The group of accused terrorists had refused to surrender after the police, acting on... MORE

Georgia observed yesterday the seventh anniversary of the national referendum that resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence from the USSR. In a speech to an anniversary gathering and in a national radio address the preceding day, President Eduard Shevardnadze paid homage to then President... MORE

Yabloko's Vladimir Lukin, the liberal reformist chairman of the Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, endorsed sanctions against Latvia in a letter to the Duma's Communist Chairman Gennady Seleznev. Lukin and his Committee "support diplomatic, political, and economic sanctions because of human rights violations in Latvia." However,... MORE

As had been widely expected, preliminary results are reporting strong Communist gains in last Sunday's election in Ukraine's autonomous republic, Crimea. Communist candidates are estimated to have won 67 percent of the votes in the republic legislature, the Supreme Soviet. Crimean Communist party leader Leonid... MORE

With 86 percent of the vote counted as of last night, Armenia's Central Electoral Commission credited Prime Minister and Acting President Robert Kocharian with 59 percent of the votes cast in the March 30 presidential runoff. The former Communist party leader Karen Demirchian obtained 41... MORE

The Socialist party and the Equal Rights (Ravnopravye) movement -- successors, respectively, of Latvia's Communist party and the Interfront -- organized a rally in downtown Riga yesterday against "human rights violations." Some 2,000 Russians, mostly of pension age, participated. The rally ended peacefully despite heated... MORE

A powerful bomb was discovered yesterday in the center of Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan. Bomb-disposal experts are working to defuse it. Neighboring apartment buildings have been evacuated. (NTV, March 31) Terrorism is becoming a feature of everyday life in Dagestan. In recent years, some thirty... MORE

President Yeltsin and other Moscow officials voiced "concern" yesterday over allegations of electoral fraud in last Sunday's election for the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia's third largest city. The Prosecutor General has been asked by the chairman of Russia's Central Electoral Commission to investigate reports... MORE

Russian President Boris Yeltsin yesterday hosted a visit by the President of Namibia, Sam Nujoma. Afterward, the two sides announced that they had signed a package of agreements, including a joint declaration on bilateral relations. They also agreed to create an intergovernmental commission to boost... MORE