Uzbek president Islam Karimov appeared concerned by recent trends in Russian foreign policy: "How can one declare oneself European and distance oneself from America at the same time?" He pointed out that Uzbekistan has chosen to export its goods outside the CIS for hard currency,... MORE

President Haidar Aliev and other officials had announced in advance of the summit that Azerbaijan would refrain from signing "most of the documents." At the summit, Aliev condemned Russia's military support for one CIS country against another. He also renewed the demand for an investigation... MORE

. President Eduard Shevardnadze had informed his country shortly before the summit that he would not consent to prolonging Russia's "peacekeeping" operation in Abkhazia until after Russian troops begin implementing earlier CIS summit decisions -- i.e., enlarging their zone of responsibility in Abkhazia in order... MORE

President Leonid Kuchma and Foreign Minister Hennady Udovenko appeared to regard this CIS summit as an opportunity to mend fences with Russia and nurture a personal relationship between Kuchma and Yeltsin. The Russian president used the opportunity to set a date in November for an... MORE

While the CIS summit was in progress in Chisinau yesterday, the executive head of the CIS Customs Union stated in Moscow that the Customs Union's October 22 summit decision to facilitate member countries' exports to Russia was not final. The official, Nigmatzhan Isingarin, said that... MORE

The prime ministers of some of the countries signed an agreement to begin discussions on the formation of a common agricultural market. Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, and Kazakhstan are reported to have signed; Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan are reported to have not signed.... MORE

The government of Tatarstan is distributing 40 million metal tokens to its population of five million. The tokens can be used to buy bread products (at subsidized prices) after November 1. Citizens of that republic currently buy butter, oil, meat, sugar, and vodka with ration... MORE

As predicted (see Monitor, October 23), yesterday's CIS summit in Chisinau was highly contentious. The meeting of the Council of Heads of State adjourned without signing any of the 17 documents on the agenda. After lengthy and emotional give-and-take on the organization's flaws and internal... MORE

Russian officials charged yesterday that pressure from the U.S. had compelled Thailand to remove a Russian armored personnel carrier from consideration for purchase by the country's military. A representative of the Russian state arms export company, Rosvooruzhenie, said that the Russian vehicle had been replaced... MORE

A group of Russian scientists has written to the Swedish Royal Academy protesting the award of the Nobel prize for physics this year to two Americans and one Frenchman. The Russians claimed that their own work had been published before that of the winning scientists,... MORE