Russian president Boris Yeltsin has appointed Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov chairman of an interdepartmental Russian government commission that will oversee relations with NATO and fulfillment of the May 27 Russia-NATO Founding Act. Primakov was given two months to draft a statute on the commission's activities... MORE

Government sources indicated on August 27 that the Russian state arms trading company Rosvooruzhenie had signed a deal with a visiting Chinese delegation to supply Beijing with military equipment worth more than $100 million dollars. The signing followed a day of talks in Moscow under... MORE

The Turkish coast guard searched an Egyptian freighter on August 27 in hopes of finding parts for the S-300 missile system sold by Russia to Cyprus. The ship was passing through the Bosphorus and was allowed to continue after the searchers failed to find the... MORE

Russian first deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais has dismissed as "complete fantasy" an Izvestia report that he will soon hand over his responsibilities as finance minister to his trusted deputy, Aleksei Kudrin. (Izvestia, August 23; RTR, August 24) Chubais told Russian TV that he intends... MORE

In a surprise move apparently connected to the Kremlin's controversial military reform effort, President Boris Yeltsin yesterday named Andrei Kokoshin to head the Chief Military Inspectorate as well as to replace Yury Baturin as secretary of the Defense Council. Kokoshin has been the highest-ranking civilian... MORE

Russia's draft federal budget for 1998 was made public on August 21. The draft was put before the Russian parliament by the legally-required date (August 26) and the Duma is scheduled to debate it on October 10-11. There is no question that the draft budget... MORE

Russian parliamentarians have been provided with plenty of ammunition to use against the government's draft budget by the Russian media -- even those sympathetic to reform. Criticisms include the following. Liberal critics warn that some traditional sacred cows of federal spending have not been slain,... MORE

Djohar-gala will soon begin construction of an oil pipeline from Chechnya to the Georgian Black Sea coast, Chechen vice-president Vakha Arsanov announced on August 27 during a visit to Baku. Arsanov said the Chechen government is completing work on the technical details of the proposed... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin is to urge parliament to declare an amnesty for 35,000 sick and elderly prisoners in a bid to reduce the numbers of prisoners in Russia's jails. A further 60,000 minor offenders would have their terms reduced. Yeltsin's amnesty would not apply... MORE

Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov's August 27-28 mission to Minsk failed to obtain the release of the two Russian ORT Television journalists still jailed in Belarus. The country's president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, held on to his prisoners, despite Primakov's deeply deferential behavior and an apparent appeal... MORE