The pro-government "Russia is Our Home" (NDR) movement has launched a new drive aimed at strengthening its presence in regional parliaments throughout Russia. Addressing a rally in Moscow this past weekend, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said the movement wants to strengthen its position in order... MORE

Yet another round of Russian-Estonian border delimitation talks ended without results in Tallinn yesterday. The Russian side sought to reopen portions of the agreement that had already been finalized, and also raised minute technical details -- involving border demarcation on the ground and at sea... MORE

Ukraine's first astronaut, Leonid Kadeniuk, yesterday spent his first day in orbit aboard the U.S. space shuttle Columbia. The crew also includes four Americans and one Japanese. Kadeniuk, a colonel in the Ukrainian air force, is responsible for conducting biological and botanical experiments during the... MORE

Karabakh president Arkady Gukasian told a visiting group of journalists in Stepanakert that "serious differences" have emerged between Karabakh and Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian regarding resolution of the conflict with Azerbaijan. Gukasian charged that Ter-Petrosian's readiness to settle for maximum autonomy of Karabakh within Azerbaijan... MORE

FBI director Louis Freeh, apparently opting for diplomacy over confrontation, said on November 19 during a visit to Moscow that crimes committed by Russians criminal groups "do not threaten the domestic or national security of the United States, and compared to other crimes, are on... MORE

As had been expected, Russian president Boris Yeltsin yesterday stripped First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais of his post as finance minister. (Reuter, November 20) "Chubais has done much for the country and will be credited for that," Yeltsin said in an informal television address,... MORE

The surprise, Russian-brokered deal to end the standoff between Iraq and the UN, finalized early yesterday morning in Geneva (see yesterday's Monitor), continues to generate questions and some skepticism. Details of the deal, which was hammered out earlier in the week during a visit by... MORE

Transdniester leader Igor Smirnov yesterday described as unacceptable recommendations from Russian, Ukrainian, and OSCE mediators on Transdniester's future political status as an autonomous part of Moldova. Smirnov spoke after meeting Moldovan president Petru Lucinschi in Chisinau. Russia's CIS affairs minister, Anatoly Adamishin, who was recently... MORE

Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov arrived in Brasilia yesterday to begin a four-day Latin American tour that will also include visits to Argentina, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Yesterday's early morning meeting in Geneva of the Russian, U.S., British, and French foreign ministers -- to discuss... MORE

President Imomali Rahmonov and Saidabdullo Nuri, leader of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) and head of the National Reconciliation Committee, met in Dushanbe on November 17 to further detail the power-sharing agreement that is designed to end the conflict in Tajikistan. According to early reports,... MORE