Azerbaijani president Haidar Aliev yesterday issued a decree on government actions aimed at "Expansion of Partnership Relations between Azerbaijan and the U.S." The decree instructs the Cabinet of Ministers, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministries, the National Bank, the presidential administration, and other agencies to... MORE

Kazakhstani president Nursultan Nazarbaev yesterday completed a five-day tour of Persian Gulf countries where he discussed possible investments in Kazakhstan's oil and gas industry and export pipeline routes. Talks with the Amirs of Kuwait and Bahrain and the Sultan of Oman resulted in the signing... MORE

Russian defense minister Igor Sergeev -- until recently head of the Strategic Rocket Forces -- yesterday again urged that the START II nuclear arms reduction treaty be ratified and that negotiations begin on the follow-on START III. He said he could justify START II on... MORE

Maverick warlord Rizvon Sodirov yesterday released from captivity Amonullo Negmatzoda, Tajikistan's officially approved top Muslim cleric, along with Negmatzoda's brother and four government soldiers. The Mufti had been seized on August 27 while apparently negotiating the release of his two sons, seized by Sodirov a... MORE

Turkmen president Saparmurad Niazov, 57, is reported in stable condition after undergoing a "complicated" heart operation near Munich. The surgery unexpectedly capped Niazov's visit to Germany. Although the president is said to be "recuperating normally," his schedule for September, including already scheduled meetings with foreign... MORE

Communist candidates suffered a shocking defeat on August 31 when voters in Saratov oblast on the Volga went to the polls to elect their regional Duma, or legislature. The elections to Saratov's 35-member parliament were the first in what promises to be a crowded couple... MORE

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Tarasov yesterday suggested that the recent U.S. media charges that Russia might have conducted a covert nuclear test on the Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya last week were connected with the U.S. Senate debate over ratification of the comprehensive nuclear... MORE

Russian and German leaders have used an official visit to Moscow by German president Roman Herzog as an occasion to restate their satisfaction with relations between the two countries. Herzog, who arrived in Russia on August 31 and will depart tomorrow, is the first president... MORE

Despite a 2.9 percent decline in dollar trade turnover (relative to the same period one year ago), Russia's trade surplus at the end of July stood at $13.1 billion, according to preliminary Goskomstat data released on August 27. This represents a slight increase over the... MORE

The share of ethnic Estonians in the country's population has increased to 65 percent, up by 3.5 percent since the 1989 Soviet census, while the share of Russians has declined to 28 percent, down 2.5 percent since 1989. The trend is being attributed to a... MORE