Russian authorities last week extradited to Azerbaijan three associates -- including a close relative -- of the former Azerbaijani prime minister Suret Huseinov. Detained on Russian territory, they are accused of involvement in the October 1994, OPON coup against President Haidar Aliev. Also last week,... MORE

To celebrate Independence Day on December 16, Kazakhstan's National Bank will print two commemorative bank notes each to the value of 20 tenge. (Delovaya nedelya, December 12) The National Bank's more pressing agenda, however, was outlined in a press statement on December 11. (Panorama, December... MORE

Ajaria's Supreme Soviet chairman, Aslan Abashidze, declared via Russia's official news agency yesterday that "Russian border guards and army troops stationed in Ajaria are the guarantors of regional stability... The Russian military presence in Ajaria helped the republic to avert a fratricidal civil war." Admonishing... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry reacted positively yesterday to the European Union's decision over the weekend to invite five former Communist countries (along with Cyprus) to become candidates for membership. Estonia was included among the five. The EU also gave pre-candidate status to an additional five eastern... MORE

Some 2,000 Minsk residents demonstrated in bitterly cold weather on December 14 in support of Svaboda, the country's main independent newspaper, recently banned by the authorities. (See Monitor, December 8) Svaboda's chief editor, Ihar Hermenchuk, told the rally that the newspaper continues publication three times... MORE

Russia's Supreme Court has overturned a ban by a regional court in Sverdlovsk Oblast on transferring to Moscow the remains of Russia's last tsar and his family. The decision, which is legally binding, is intended to facilitate a final round of tests to determine the... MORE

The results of the December 14 elections to the 35-seat Moscow City Duma, or legislature, represented a resounding vote of confidence in Mayor Yury Luzhkov. At 30 percent, turnout was low, though this may have been partly due to the extremely cold temperatures. The majority... MORE

Armenia's Supreme Court on December 12 pronounced sentence in the political trial of the "Group of 31," most of whom are associated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutiun and former volunteer detachments in the Karabakh war. One defendant was sentenced to death for murder; 29 were... MORE

"Where are you, Nursultan Abishevich? You can't seriously believe that you can reconstruct former Tselinograd into the Republic's new capital in such a short space of time?" Such was the conversation between Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbaev on December 11,... MORE

In a personal letter just sent to the presidents and prime ministers of all European Union member countries, President Petru Lucinschi appeals for an early start of negotiations toward an agreement on associate membership between the EU and Moldova. Reaffirming Moldova's aspiration eventually to join... MORE