The Crimean leadership has responded angrily to a move by the Ukrainian authorities to place the Crimean resort, Yalta, under the direct control of the central government. Last week, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma signed a decree installing a new temporary mayor in Yalta and placing... MORE

President Levon Ter-Petrosian was obliged yesterday to accept the resignations of both Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanian and Yerevan Mayor Vano Siradeghian. Siradeghian is also expected to resign very soon as chairman of the ruling Armenian Pan-National Movement (APNM) and of the Republic bloc in parliament.... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin's open endorsement of his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma ahead of Ukraine's elections (see Monitor, February 2) has triggered immediate protests from Kuchma's political rivals in Ukraine. One top rival, the former prime minister, Yevhen Marchuk, retorted that the elections are "an... MORE

The government commission set up to determine the authenticity of the remains of the imperial family has confirmed this and finalized its recommendations for burial. In its January 30 meeting, it recommended to President Yeltsin that the royal family should be buried in the former... MORE

Russian media last week provided few specifics on a six-day visit to China by the country's chief military inspector, Andrei Kokoshin. They did suggest, however, that talks between Kokoshin and top Chinese leaders had provided a much-needed boost to bilateral cooperation in the areas of... MORE

International financier George Soros and Russian media magnate Boris Berezovsky, who crossed swords earlier this month at a conference at Harvard (see Monitor, January 12), clashed again at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday. According to Russian television Soros publicly accused Berezovsky of acquiring... MORE

The Russian government tried yesterday to ward off the influence of "Asian flu" and reassure jittery investors about the health of Russia's economy. Deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Sergei Aleksashenko, and Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov both insisted that Russia's tax collection performance is on... MORE

Last week, Russian financial markets appeared to be on the brink of an Asian-style crisis. Yields on one-year treasury bills, which fell to 17 percent in October, climbed to 46 percent as buyers grew fearful that a ruble devaluation was imminent. Foreigners hold about $16... MORE

Russian diplomats were left red-faced yesterday when authorities in Baghdad flatly denied a claim that Moscow had engineered a breakthrough in the Persian Gulf crisis. The denial was delivered to journalists by Iraqi Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Riyadh al-Qaysi and came in the wake of... MORE

The three-day feast of Id al-Fitr (Bairam) on January 29-31, which ended the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, may have provided the Uzbek authorities with a convenient timing for releasing alleged Islamic radicals arrested last December. According to Amnesty International, most of the approximately 100... MORE