Agents of a special brigade set up by President Maskhadov to coordinate the fight against kidnapping arrived in Moscow on August 25 to investigate claims that ransoms were paid for the Russian journalists released in Chechnya last week. Djohar-gala has said that the money will... MORE

Relations between Russia and Israel have taken a double hit in recent days as an Israeli newspaper reported yesterday that an investigation into a local crime figure could reflect badly upon Boris Yeltsin's government while Israeli television a day earlier accused Russia of assisting Iran... MORE

The plot thickened yesterday over last week's surprise reorganization of Russia's state-owned arms trade company, Rosvooruzhenie. (See Monitor, August 22) President Boris Yeltsin told journalists yesterday that he had felt compelled to dismiss the company's general director, Aleksandr Kotelkin, not because Kotelkin "did anything wrong,"... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin told the Russian people last week that there were "more problems than successes" in Russia's civil aviation, and that the country could not exist "without a developed and reliable civil aviation." Yeltsin had just visited the international aerospace show held near Moscow,... MORE

The Sea Breeze-97 exercise, held within the framework of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, entered its active phase yesterday in Ukrainian waters off of Crimea. It opened officially on August 24 at the Ukrainian naval bases of Donuzlav- Novoozyornoye. The exercise involves the U.S. destroyer... MORE

Although most of the other CIS economies are growing, Russia's is stagnating (GDP is down 0.2 percent for the first 7 months of 1997 over the same period in 1996. See yesterday's Monitor) while Ukraine's GDP continues to fall sharply (down 6.9 percent for the... MORE

Kazakhstani president Nursultan Nazarbaev told a news conference yesterday that the Tengiz-Novorossiisk oil pipeline, designed to carry 67 million tons annually to Russia and due for completion in 2002, will fall far short of meeting Kazakstan's needs as an international oil exporter. The country plans... MORE

Ten members of Russia's tax police have been killed so far this year, 40 have been injured, and two are missing. (Itar-Tass, AP, BBC, August 23) The cash-strapped government created the special force last year to collect taxes under the motto "We have weapons and... MORE

Avigdor Qahalani, Israel's internal security minister, completed a two-day official visit to Russia last week. During his stay, Qahalani had talks with Russia's internal affairs minister (and deputy prime minister) Viktor Kulikov, and with the director of Russia's Federal Security Service, Nikolai Kovalev. The two... MORE

Georgian defense minister Vardiko Nadibaidze said on Saturday in Kiev that his country is no longer insisting that it be given part of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet. He said that Georgia is entitled to some of the ships and does not rule out... MORE