With almost all the harvest now in, preliminary results put Russia's 1997 grain harvest at 84.3 million tons. Estimates of the final total vary but, thanks to favorable weather, this is sure to be a better result than was the case in 1995 (63.5 million... MORE

The Clinton Administration indicated yesterday that it had won a commitment from Russia to exert its influence on Baghdad in an effort to resolve the crisis in Iraq. The announcement followed a telephone conversation yesterday between President Bill Clinton and Russian president Boris Yeltsin. U.S.... MORE

Russian first deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais conferred on November 14 in Kyiv with President Leonid Kuchma and other Ukrainian leaders in preparation for Kuchma's informal meeting with Boris Yeltsin in Moscow on November 16-17. The Ukrainian leaders and Chubais reviewed the full range of... MORE

In a lecture at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London, Georgian foreign minister Irakli Menagarishvili pointed out that "the presence of Russian peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia serves to preserve the existing situation, is not conducive to a settlement, and contributes to maintaining the... MORE

Constitution Day, November 4, marked the beginning of a news campaign by official Dushanbe intended to portray the situation in Tajikistan in a more favorable light. In a speech broadcast on Tajik radio, President Imomali Rahmonov praised the citizens of Tajikistan for what he said... MORE

International oil industry leaders and senior government officials from nearly 20 countries yesterday attended the official inauguration of commercial production at Azerbaijan's Chirag oilfield, the first to come on stream as part of the "project of the century." On the Chirag-I offshore platform, Azerbaijani president... MORE

The Movement for a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova (see above) has recently taken shape with the declared purpose of supporting President Lucinschi's reform program and promoting that program in February's parliamentary elections. MDPM's leader, Dumitru Diacov, was earlier this year deposed as vice-chairman of parliament... MORE

The Agrarian Democratic Party, which has governed Moldova since 1993 and won 56 out of 104 parliamentary seats in the 1994 elections, has now been reduced to a leftward-drifting rump of 19 parliamentary deputies. In the latest setback for the ADP, a group of 15... MORE

The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commission has just released a report on Belarus, which is based on material submitted by the Belarusan government and by human rights monitors. The commission found a "substantial deterioration of the situation" since its preceding assessment (1992). It ascertained, inter... MORE

Belarusan agriculture minister Vasyl Lyavonav and farm amalgamation director Vasyl Staravoitav were arrested by the KGB on November 10, and were pronounced guilty of corruption yesterday by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and state radio and television. Lyavonav, who hails from Lukashenka's Mohilyav region, last week described... MORE