Russian deputy premier and interior minister Anatoly Kulikov has called for preventive strikes on the bases of Chechen fighters suspected of having taken part in last month's raid on the Dagestani town of Buinaksk. "These bandits don't understand anything else; you've got to destroy them,"... MORE

Valdas Adamkus won Lithuania's presidential runoff, held on January 4, by a margin of approximately one percent or less, against the left-of-center candidate, former prosecutor general Arturas Paulauskas. The turnout was 74 percent. The vote of Lithuanians abroad has not yet been counted and is... MORE

In a joint communique published yesterday, Presidents Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan and Imomali Rahmonov of Tajikistan "condemned political and religious extremism" and undertook to resist it. The communique followed Rahmonov's one-day "working visit" to Tashkent, during which Karimov expressed concern over the United Tajik Opposition's... MORE

For the second year running, Russia has been declared the world's most dangerous country for journalists. The latest annual report of the International Federation of Journalists reports that eight of the 47 journalists killed in 1997 while carrying out their professional duties were Russian. According... MORE

A Russian delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov signed a multi-billion dollar deal in Beijing on December 29 that calls for Russia to provide two 1,000 megawatt pressurized water reactors, as well as other equipment and training, for a nuclear power plant... MORE

Several thousand people gathered on January 3 in Grozny's Freedom Square at the behest of Chechen field commander Salman Raduev to oppose "Wahhabism." Raduev told the meeting that "high-ranking members of the Chechen government support the Wahhabi movement." Other speakers declared Wahhabis to be "enemies... MORE

Russian officials have appeared to be on the defensive recently when speaking of the country's arms exports for 1997. Aleksei Ogarev, the Deputy Head of Yeltsin's staff, felt compelled last week to deny that exports for the year had been a "complete failure." Without disclosing... MORE

Russian shoppers have reacted calmly to the re-denomination of their currency, which saw three zeroes lopped off the ruble on January 1. Because the New Year holiday has been followed by Orthodox Christmas, most shops have been closed and few people have so far gotten... MORE

In addition to its substantive implications for Russian defense and foreign policy, the approval by Boris Yeltsin last month of a "National Security Concept" (see yesterday's Monitor) appears to mark the reemergence of the Russian Security Council as the country's premier agency in the formulation... MORE

In his New Year's address to the country and a follow-up news conference for foreign and national media, President Eduard Shevardnadze stated that "failing significant progress soon" toward a political settlement of the Abkhaz conflict, he would call for an international "peace enforcement operation in... MORE