In other remarks made during the Strasbourg summit, Yeltsin proposed the construction of a "great Europe without dividing lines" -- a reference to his earlier calls for stronger ties between Russia and Europe accompanied, presumably, by both a reduction in the U.S. presence on the... MORE

President Aslan Maskhadov has dismissed Shamsudin Batukaev and the other members of the board of the supreme Shariah court which Batukaev chaired, accusing them of unspecified "errors and shortcomings." Batukaev was made court chairman in 1995 on the orders of Chechnya's first president, Djohar Dudaev,... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry this weekend expressed some consternation over recent reports in the Japanese press describing the passage this past July of two Japanese warships through the Urup strait -- a strategic waterway linking the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean which is near... MORE

Azerbaijani foreign minister Hassan Hassanov and Armenian presidential spokesman Levon Zurabian declined on October 10 and 11 to take a position on Russian president Boris Yeltsin's proposal to negotiate a settlement of the Karabakh conflict at a Russian-French-Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Moscow. Both Hassanov and Zurabian... MORE

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged the Moscow city authorities to speed up the processing of applications of some 15,000 asylum-seekers from outside the CIS and to protect them from harassment. Earlier this week, protesting Angolan and Zairean asylum-seekers wrecked a UNHCR-administered... MORE

A local government official from the Russian-controlled Kurils Islands told reporters in Kushiro, Japan, on October 8 that he would not object if the islands were handed over to Tokyo. The official, who was visiting Kushiro as chief of a Russian mission, said that his... MORE

A Russian presidential administration official confirmed yesterday that the unprecedented granting of a pardon to convicted CIA agent Vladimir Makarov (see yesterday's Monitor) was carried out at the request of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) with a view toward encouraging other spies for foreign powers... MORE

Russia's Communist Party, together with other left-wing political groups, have hailed the naming of Kim Jong Il as head of North Korea's ruling Korean Workers Party. The move, which had long been expected, formalizes Kim's de facto status as North Korea's leader, although he has... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin says he will not seek a third term as president. Yeltsin, speaking in Strasbourg where he is due to address a Council of Europe summit this afternoon, said that he is the guardian of the Russian constitution, which restricts the presidency... MORE

As had been expected, the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, yesterday rejected the government's draft 1998 federal budget in the first reading. In a gesture of moderation, the Duma rejected by 134 to 78 a proposal by the Popular Power faction that... MORE