Ajar Supreme Soviet Chairman Aslan Abashidze announced yesterday that the chamber has voted to create a Security Council of Ajaria. It has also adopted a law on the organization of Ajaria's judiciary, a law on defending public order, and an antiterrorism law. The Supreme Soviet... MORE

At least thirteen Internal Affairs troopers were killed, a minimum of ten were injured and some are missing in action as a result of clashes yesterday in Kofarnihon district, some twenty-five kilometers east of Dushanbe. The clashes began when a government patrol entered a village... MORE

The Hrodna Region Court, an instance of appeals, rejected yesterday the appeal of Pavel Sheremet and Dmitry Zavadsky, employees of Russian ORT Public Television in Belarus. The court disregarded multiple flaws in the prosecution's case, which were detailed by the defense. The original sentence against... MORE

Ukrainian authorities stepped up a crackdown on organized crime in the port city of Odessa during the night of March 23-24. Police and the "Berkut" antiterrorist unit entered the city hall that night to detain the first deputy mayor Anatoly Vorokhayev, accused leader of a... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday reportedly denied that Moscow is obligated by a 1956 joint declaration with Japan to return two of the four disputed Kuril Islands seized by Soviet troops at the close of World War II. On March 22, the Japanese Kyodo news agency... MORE

Some 5,000 Crimean Tatars demonstrated in the streets of Simferopol again yesterday. As on previous occasions, they called for accelerated citizenship to enable them and other deported peoples to vote in Ukraine's March 29 parliamentary elections. This time, they blocked roads in and out of... MORE

Russia's Justice Minister Sergei Stepashin was in Chelyabinsk Oblast last week to mark the transfer of prisons in the Urals region from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) to the Justice Ministry. (Novye izvestia, March 20) This was the first handover in the transfer of... MORE

A Russian military court on March 23 sentenced an officer serving in the country's strategic missile forces to twelve years in prison for spying. Major Igor Dudnik was accused of having tried to sell secret information about Russia's missile forces to the United States. Dudnik,... MORE

Quoting unnamed Russian and foreign officials, the Washington Post reported on March 23 that agents from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) have for several years been recruiting Russian scientists to help Iran develop its ballistic missile technology. According to the U.S. newspaper, contracts between the... MORE

The Kremlin yesterday appeared to confirm that Russia's foreign and defense ministers will retain their posts in a new Russian government. Russian President Boris Yeltsin made a point of praising the two men -- Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov and Defense Minister Igor Sergeev -- during... MORE