A Chinese newspaper reported recently that China was about to take delivery of two Project 636 Kilo-class submarines -- the most advanced version of this Russian-built, diesel-powered vessel. The sale would mark the first overseas delivery of this sub, although India also recently ordered two.... MORE

Ukraine "fully supports" the plan to hold the next CIS summit in Chisinau, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's CIS division chief, Stanislav Lazebnik, in a press statement yesterday. Last week CIS executive secretary Ivan Korotchenya had disclosed the plan, authorized by Russian president Boris... MORE

Prime minister Syarhey Linh on July 29 denied earlier reports that he had tendered his resignation to president Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Linh did not explain why he kept silent before issuing this denial. He told journalists that he supports Lukashenka's "correctly chosen economic strategy," whose main... MORE

Some 30 participants in the July 27 opposition demonstration in Minsk have been arrested and face administrative proceedings that usually result in up to 14 days imprisonment or heavy fines. Those arrested include Popular Front co-chairman Stanislau Husak and Social-Democrat Party chairman Mikalay Statkevich. The... MORE

Kazakhstani president Nursultan Nazarbaev yesterday released First Deputy Prime Minister Nigmatzhan Isingarin from that post. A senior government official implied that Isingarin had focused on his concurrent responsibility as head of the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan "Integration Committee" at the expense of his work in the national government.... MORE

Last week more than 230 members of the Russian Ground Forces walked away from their units, a source in the Defense Ministry announced yesterday. Over the last five years more than 4,000 servicemen have been classified as deserters for leaving their units without leave. (Russian... MORE

Persons in the armed forces who are accused of financial crimes -- such as the misuse of official funds, mismanagement of accounts, or pilfering -- will in the future be charged with sabotage, Defense Minister Igor Sergeev said yesterday. He promised that this would not... MORE

Apparently as part of its new initiative to improve relations with Moscow, the Japanese government will propose that Japan participate in the development of a Russian gas field some 400 kilometers north of Irkutsk. According to a Japanese newspaper, Tokyo intends to propose that a... MORE

Boris Yeltsin has ordered his staffers to meet with the Russian Orthodox hierarchy to discuss amendments to the controversial bill on religion which the Russian president last week refused to sign into law. Yeltsin has already said that he favors a law that will prevent... MORE

Statements by Russian security council secretary Ivan Rybkin on his return from the North Caucasus late last week suggest that his view of the conflict between North Ossetia and Ingushetia over Prigorodny district has more in common with that of Vladikavkaz than of Nazran. Rybkin... MORE