Russian authorities intend today to press espionage charges against Richard L. Bliss, an American technician who was arrested in Russia on November 25 (see Monitor, December 2), a spokesman for the Federal Security Service said yesterday. Bliss is an employee of the San Diego-based Qualcomm... MORE

Overshadowed by the attention given to Boris Yeltsin's recent trip to Stockholm, NATO defense chiefs yesterday completed three days of talks with their Russian counterparts at alliance headquarters in Brussels. The December 2-3 talks constituted the first meeting of the Russia-NATO Permanent Joint Council (PJC)... MORE

Several leading Swedish newspapers have apparently raised questions about Russian president Boris Yeltsin's fitness for office in the wake of a 3-day visit filled with diplomatic blunders and dubious public statements by Yeltsin on key security issues. The criticism follows Yeltsin's departure from Stockholm yesterday.... MORE

Lithuania's 1998 defense budget, just approved by parliament, represents 6.3 percent of the total state budget and 1.45 percent of projected GDP, well above the 4 percent and 0.92 percentages, respectively, in 1997. The Defense Ministry announced yesterday that it plans to spend a record... MORE

The Russian State Duma is today debating, in the first of four required readings, the government's proposed 1998 federal budget. A minimum of 226 votes is required for approval. The draft has been substantially amended since October's stand-off, when the Duma rejected the government's original... MORE

Duma speaker Gennady Seleznev indicated yesterday that the Russian parliament is unlikely to ratify the START II arms control treaty until at least early next year. According to Seleznev, deputies will continue work on the treaty during the current session, but will probably not complete... MORE

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Belarusan president Alyaksandr Lukashenka chaired on December 2 in Minsk a session of the Russia-Belarus Union's Executive Committee. They resolved that the Union's Supreme Council -- which is co-chaired by Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Lukashenka -- shall increase the... MORE

The High Court of Economic Arbitration has ordered the immediate closure of the country's main independent newspaper, Svaboda. The newspaper, whose last issue appeared on November 25, reflected the views of the democratic opposition. Belarusan journalists and Helsinki Committee members told The Monitor that Svaboda's... MORE

The Law on Land, adopted on November 12 by the Saratov Oblast Duma, entered into force yesterday, the Monitor's correspondent in the region reports. The law expressly permits, for the first time in Russian history, the free purchase and sale of land, including agricultural land.... MORE

Yeltsin's arms control initiatives during his stay in Stockholm have taken the spotlight off of Swedish-Russian bilateral relations and a package of agreements signed by the two sides on the first day of Yeltsin's three-day visit to Sweden. The Russian president, who received a royal... MORE