Russian president Boris Yeltsin has, in recent months, repeatedly raised Western eyebrows -- and those of his own staff -- through some off-the-cuff and even emotional proposals in the field of arms control. But Yeltsin's December 3 Stockholm speech, offering to reduce conventional military forces... MORE

The Russian-Chechen commission drafting a full-scale treaty between Russia and Chechnya met in Grozny on December 6. The purpose of this, the second visit by Russian Security Council secretary Ivan Rybkin in the space of a week, was to discuss the restoration of the Chechen... MORE

In addition to the tragic loss of life that it incurred, the crash of the Russian An-124 cargo plane on December 6 could have repercussions in two areas that have been major sources of hard currency for Russia: arms exports and air charters. The giant... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin on December 5 made a surprise visit to the Russian Duma and successfully appealed to it to accept the 1998 federal budget in the first of four statutory readings. (RTR, December 7) In the past, Yeltsin has resolutely refused to address the... MORE

Rescue workers combing the wreckage of the December 6 crash of a Russian cargo plane in Siberia announced earlier today that they had given up hope of finding any more survivors. Russian emergencies' minister Sergei Shoigu told reporters in Irkutsk that workers had found 41... MORE

Some 100 Tbilisi activists of the youth branch of the Georgia Citizens' Union, the country's governing party, demonstrated December 5-7 outside the Russian border post Upper Larsi, which Russian border troops have moved into neutral territory claimed by Georgia. President Eduard Shevardnadze requested an immediate... MORE

Georgian parliament chairman Zurab Zhvania told a December 2 news conference that "Russian actions vis-a-vis Georgia are gradually turning into a cold war." Zhvania singled out the relocation of a key Russian border post onto territory that Georgia considers its own; the Russian border troops'... MORE

The United Social Democrats may be far more significant as an electoral force than as a party in its own right. Topping its electoral slate are former president Leonid Kravchuk and former prime minister Yevhen Marchuk, who are not party members. These two allies of... MORE

Writing in the December 2 issue of Sovetskaya Belorussia, his administration's official newspaper, Belarusan president Alyaksandr Lukashenka warned that "the fate of the CIS will be easy to predict" if it continues "wasting time on discussions and explanations, without taking any specific decisions," as --... MORE

Russian Security Council secretary Ivan Rybkin expressed satisfaction yesterday with his latest one-day visit to Grozny. He and Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov discussed President Boris Yeltsin's intention of visiting Chechnya in January and agreed to install a Yeltsin-Maskhadov hotline. Rybkin repeated a complaint he has... MORE