Hearings held by Russia's Duma on December 9 have resulted in a set of recommendations to the Russian president and government. The recommendations call for Russia: to renounce the existing, unratified interstate political treaty with Moldova; to negotiate a new treaty that would incorporate an... MORE

Several thousand supporters of the Belarusan democratic opposition marked Human Rights Day -- December 10 -- at a rally in central Minsk yesterday. The Popular Front, the Social-Democrat and Civic Action parties, and the Fund to Support the Independent Press were among the main organizers... MORE

Defense Ministers Andrus Oovel of Estonia, Talavs Jundzis of Latvia, and Ceslovas Stankevicius of Lithuania signed yesterday in Tallinn a package of intergovernmental agreements on the status and operation of the joint Baltic Battalion. Under the agreements, BaltBat is being placed under the political authority... MORE

Chechen first deputy premier Movladi Udugov told the Monitor yesterday: "It's hard for me to say anything concrete on the subject of the two Chechen women accused of smuggling arms, but I am almost certain that this is a trumped-up case, just like Moscow's previous... MORE

The Russian government is still treading water in its efforts to improve tax collection. In the first nine months of the year federal tax receipts amounted to only 52 percent of the planned level. (Kommersant-daily, December 5) Federal revenues reached 205 trillion rubles in nine... MORE

The difficulty of amending Russia's constitution means that the gap in the constitution that was revealed when Yeltsin fell sick with pneumonia in January has still not been plugged, and the law still provides no means of determining whether the president is fit to fulfill... MORE

Yeltsin's latest illness occurs at a moment when the president and the Russian parliament seemed to be on the verge of creating extra-constitutional mechanisms to defuse the conflictual relations between executive and legislative branches that are virtually inevitable under Russia's 1993 constitution. The next casualty... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin's doctors have advised him against recording his usual weekly radio address tomorrow. (BBC, December 11) Yesterday, the Russian president was diagnosed as suffering from an "acute respiratory viral infection" and advised to stay in a sanitarium for 10-12 days lest his "cold"... MORE

The commander in chief of Russia's Air Force, Gen. Petr Deneikin, submitted his resignation today, after being criticized in parliament for the December 6 air disaster in Irkutsk. The Kremlin insisted that Deneikin is leaving his post only because he will turn 60 this week... MORE

The city of Akmola has officially become the new capital of Kazakhstan. President Nursultan Nazarbaev yesterday moved his working residence to Akmola from Almaty, and the cabinet of ministers and the two chambers of parliament held their first sessions in the new capital. Russian Air... MORE