Azerbaijani prosecutor general Eldar Hasanov yesterday contradicted an assertion by the Russian chief military prosecutor, Yury Demin, that Baku had failed to make available its evidence of clandestine Russian arms deliveries to Armenia. Hasanov stated that Baku had forwarded "a good deal of documents... some... MORE

The Communist Party of Ukraine held an extraordinary congress on November 1 in Kyiv behind closed doors. It approved an electoral program calling for an alliance of leftist forces against two main foes: the "antipopular regime" of Leonid Kuchma and the "right-wing" Rukh and other... MORE

At a strategy-setting congress of his Socialist Party on November 1-2, Ukrainian parliament chairman Oleksandr Moroz set the goal of winning a parliamentary majority in order to terminate "experiments at the expense of the people" [i.e. market reforms], establish a "state-managed social market economy," revise... MORE

Russian defense minister Igor Sergeev and his visiting British counterpart, George Robertson, on November 4 signed an agreement on the creation of a joint commission to promote bilateral military and technological cooperation. In his meeting with Sergeev and in talks with other Russian leaders, Robertson... MORE

The U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee yesterday approved two resolutions, one that denounced Moscow for recent passage of a law that critics say abridges religious freedoms in Russia and another that threatens sanctions against Russia for aiding an Iranian missile building program. The second of... MORE

Russian billionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky reacted with fury yesterday to his dismissal by President Yeltsin from the post of deputy secretary of Russia's powerful Security Council. Berezovsky told Ekho Moskvy radio that Yeltsin had been talked into sacking him by First Deputy Prime Ministers Anatoly... MORE

U.S. officials are encouraging Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to settle a dispute over ownership of three Caspian oilfields through negotiations, and are offering to mediate such negotiations, according to reports from Baku and Washington yesterday. The dispute concerns the Kapaz/Serdar, Azeri, and Chirag oilfields, controlled by... MORE

Holding its second session on November 3-4, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russia-Belarus Union adopted a resolution condemning unnamed senior Russian officials for canceling Belarusan president Alyaksandr Lukashenka's visit to Russia last month. Russian Duma chairman Gennady Seleznev, chairing the session, deplored the "inefficiency" of... MORE

The former first secretary of Latvia's Communist Party, Alfreds Rubiks, was released yesterday from prison, two years before the expiration of his eight-year term. Rubiks had been sentenced for leading an attempt to overthrow Latvia's lawful government during the August 1991 Soviet putsch. Communists and... MORE

Russia's representative to the UN told the General Assembly yesterday that Russia's peacekeeping troops in Bosnia will not take part in any armed operations aimed at detaining accused war criminals. The diplomat repeated past Russian arguments that any such actions would only exacerbate tensions in... MORE