The UN High Commission for Refugees has temporarily suspended its work in Vladikavkaz. The move was made because the chief of the commission's mission there, French citizen Vincent Cochetel, has not yet been found. Cochetel was kidnapped on January 29. The High Commissioner has appealed... MORE

In a local press interview yesterday, Belarusan President Alyaksandr Lukashenka attacked "the U.S. which blackmails the world with nuclear weapons. This would have been impossible if the USSR had continued to exist." Observing that "Russia and Belarus surrendered their fall-back position by withdrawing the nuclear... MORE

Russian Economy Minister Yakov Urinson told a group of British businessmen in Moscow yesterday that the government has revised its forecast of economic growth this year from the original two percent to 1.2 percent. Urinson blamed this on ongoing upheaval in global markets and said... MORE

An Ilyushin-86 plane chartered by Russian ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky finally made it to Baghdad yesterday -- with its modest cargo of humanitarian goods but minus the majority of its original complement of passengers. Zhirinovsky's arrival in the Iraqi capital ended more than three days of... MORE

The problem of coordinating the actions of local law enforcement agencies in the North Caucasus was discussed on February 11 in Nazran, the capital of Ingushetia. Representatives of Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Chechnya met at an expanded session of Ingushetia's Security Council. According to... MORE

Russian Vice Premier Ramazan Abdulatipov has unambiguously expressed his dissatisfaction with the actions of Russia's force ministries (i.e., the armed forces, internal security forces and the forces of various security agencies) in the Northern Caucasus. According to the vice premier, dozens of medals have been... MORE

The Washington Post reported this morning that last fall United Nations inspectors in Iraq discovered and seized a document that might constitute evidence of a Moscow-Iraqi germ warfare deal. The inspectors consider the document to be evidence of a 1995 agreement by the Russian government... MORE

Russian President Boris Yeltsin returned to Moscow yesterday following several days of talks with Italian leaders in Rome. (See yesterday's Monitor) On February 10, Yeltsin and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi issued a joint statement that appealed for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in... MORE

Spacecraft Soyuz TM-27, which was launched on January 29 from Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, is due to spend 194 days in orbit with the Russian space station Mir. The commander of this, the twenty-fifth international expedition to Mir, is for the first time a... MORE

The Azerbaijani parliament voted overwhelmingly on February 6 and 10 to abolish its death penalty. At President Haidar Aliev's initiative, the Milli Majlis amended the relevant articles of the criminal code, replacing capital punishment with life or long-term imprisonment. Aliev had proposed the change on... MORE