Col. Adil Ismailov, until recently head of the investigative department of the Baku police, along with the chief prosecutor and deputy prosecutor of Beylagan district, were arrested this week on criminal charges of extortion, embezzlement, and abuse of office. Human rights groups additionally accuse Ismailov... MORE

The Russian cabinet yesterday approved a draft budget for 1998 which it will submit to parliament by August 25. Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said it was a good budget but that, because of its austerity, the government will have a hard job persuading parliament to... MORE

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov is keen to press ahead with the signing of a full-fledged treaty between Russia and Chechnya and considers it "cannot be put off, even for a single day." Maskhadov told a press conference yesterday that he was alarmed by President Yeltsin's... MORE

Moscow and Djohar-gala are both investigating the charges by NTV president Igor Malashenko and Security Council deputy secretary Boris Berezovsky that ransoms were paid for the five Russian journalists freed from captivity in Chechnya this week. (See Monitor, August 21) Yesterday, President Yeltsin met the... MORE

One day after he had publicly praised the performance of the state-owned Rosvooruzhenie arms trading company, Russian president Boris Yeltsin yesterday sacked its general director and initiated several other measures to tighten government control over the country's increasingly lucrative arms trade. Sent packing was Gen.... MORE

The U.S. State Department has recalled from Russia an embassy political attache who, on the evening of August 18, was involved in an auto accident that left a Russian pedestrian seriously injured. The U.S. diplomat, Matt Bryza, was serving as second secretary in the Moscow... MORE

Russian presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky yesterday broke the Kremlin's silence and attacked Belarusan president Alyaksandr Lukashenka for the jailing of Russian state television journalists. (See Monitor, August 18-21) Warning on radio that "Moscow's patience is wearing thin," Yastrzhembsky said he "categorically demanded" that Lukashenka release... MORE

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vasily Nesterushkin yesterday demanded that Tbilisi "undertake necessary measures for the immediate release" of three Russian paratroopers -- two captains and a private -- held hostage since August 16 by a Georgian group of anti-Abkhaz guerrillas. The three Russians belong to... MORE

The Opposition leadership has made a significant concession regarding security arrangements for its representatives on the National Reconciliation Commission. It agreed to reduce initially its protection unit, due to be introduced in Dushanbe, to approximately half of the 460 men stipulated by the protocol on... MORE

Bowing to Russian pressure, Belarus had agreed to release three of the Russian journalists it is holding for alleged border violations. Two other Russian journalists will apparently remain in detention, however. (BBC World Service, August 21; see also story below) Russian Companies Sign Oil Contracts... MORE