Tatsyana Protska, the chairwoman of the Belarus Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, was arrested on October 23 on charges of disobedience to the police and obstruction of a police action. She was detained while observing the police in the process of searching the home of... MORE

The meeting of CIS heads of state in Chisinau concluded last week with an agreement to create a "common agricultural market". (Russian agencies, October 23) Of the 12 CIS member states, only Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan refused to sign the agreement. However, the history of most... MORE

The chairman of Russia's State Committee for Customs, Anatoly Kruglov, on October 24 came out against President Boris Yeltsin's promise that value-added taxes on exports within the CIS Customs Union would henceforth be levied in the country of destination. Made by Yeltsin at the Customs... MORE

The issue of alleged Russian aid for an Iranian missile development program was back in the headlines over the weekend as Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov launched a week-long visit to the Middle East. According to Israeli sources, Primakov was told during talks yesterday with... MORE

The St. Petersburg Times has launched a series of articles exploring the shadowy history of privatization in Russia's northern capital -- a process which culminated in the assassination of Mikhail Manevich, deputy governor and head of the City Property Committee, in August of this year.... MORE

Turnout was high yesterday, especially in rural districts, as voters in Orel oblast in Russia's black earth region went to the polls to elect their governor. According to preliminary reports, incumbent Yegor Stroev won 97 percent of the votes -- the highest percentage recorded in... MORE

The authorities in Chechnya, who assert that their republic is an independent state, have said all along that they will not permit their citizens to take Russian passports and have already printed their own identity documents. But the federal authorities in Moscow have been taken... MORE

On a three-day visit to Russia, completed on October 25, Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas signed with his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin a border-delimitation treaty -- Moscow's first with a Baltic state. Yeltsin renewed his offer to guarantee the security of Lithuania and of the other... MORE

Conflict continues over Russia's new passports. Distribution of the documents, which serve as obligatory proof of identity, was supposed to have begun as of October 1 and, at the end of September, President Boris Yeltsin ceremonially handed out the first 30 passports to 14-year-old orphans... MORE

A third meeting of the Russia-NATO Permanent Joint Council (PJC) met at the ambassadorial level in Brussels on October 24. In addition to discussing peacekeeping operations in Bosnia, the two sides reviewed an action plan for the PJC agreed upon at the council's first ministerial... MORE