The U.S. consortium RV Investment Group Services and the Azerbaijani state company Azergyzyl signed yesterday in the presidential palace in Baku a contract to mine metal ores in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani president Haidar Aliev and RVIGS chairman of the board John Sununu, former White House chief... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin opened a meeting of Russia's powerful Security Council this morning with a call for renewed efforts to bring peace to Russia's troubled North Caucasus. (BBC, August 20) Yesterday, Yeltsin marked the sixth anniversary of the failed coup of August 1991 by telling... MORE

There was further evidence yesterday that the row over last month's controversial Svyazinvest auction has split the Russian government into warring factions when First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov publicly accused deputy secretary of the Security Council, Boris Berezovsky, of abusing his official position to... MORE

Voters in Russia's Far East voted overwhelmingly on August 17 against construction of a nuclear waste storage and processing facility that is to be financed with Japanese aid. Proposals call for the facility to be built 40 kilometers east of Vladivostok, in the city of... MORE

Norwegian prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland admitted in a radio interview yesterday that he had contacts with the Soviet KGB in the 1970's and 1980's. He was a top official in the country's Labor Party at that time. Newspapers in Norway are apparently not suggesting that... MORE

The government of Indonesia on August 6 announced its intention to buy 12 Russian-made Su-30 fighter planes and eight Mi-17 helicopters. The announcement follows a decision made by Jakarta this past June to cancel the purchase of nine U.S. F-16 fighters because of congressional criticism... MORE

The head of Russia's NTV television company, Igor Malashenko, yesterday accused the Chechen government of active involvement in the wave of kidnappings that has swept the republic since Russian troops withdrew a year ago. Malashenko told a Moscow press conference that Chechen vice president Vakha... MORE

Yesterday's allegations by Malashenko and Berezovsky could damage not only the credibility of the Chechen government but also the fragile peace deal patched together in Moscow on August 18 by Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov. The agreement by the two presidents... MORE

In contrast to previous attempts at monetary reform, the introduction of a new Russian ruble (to be worth 1,000 current rubles) seems likely to go off without a hitch. (Russian agencies, August 13, 14) According to a decree signed by President Boris Yeltsin on August... MORE

A Congressional committee wants to see if the Pentagon adequately investigated an April incident in which a Russian merchant ship was suspected of firing a laser that injured the eyes of an American naval officer. The officer was a liaison officer aboard a Canadian helicopter... MORE