Patriarch Alexy II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has urged Russian president Boris Yeltsin to enact the controversial bill on religion approved by both houses of the Russian parliament earlier this month. The patriarch's appeal came as Pope John Paul II wrote to President... MORE

All senior government officials in Russia have now released income declarations, although their reliability is somewhat in doubt. Security Council deputy secretary Boris Berezovsky topped the income list, earning 2.5 billion rubles ($430,000) in 1996, followed by First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais with 1.7... MORE

A July 17 meeting of the Russian government, chaired by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, sent back for reworking a document prepared by the Economy Ministry which proposed price reform and cuts in cross-subsidies between different categories of consumers. (ORT, July 17) The utilities argue that... MORE

The bank scandal which erupted last week provides a glimpse into the financial problems being faced by Russia's military industrial plants. Unikombank was upbraided for alleged irregularities in the provision of a $237 million loan to the MiG-MAPO firm to fund the sale of MiG... MORE

Defense Council secretary Yury Baturin yesterday provided a few more details on the military reform measures endorsed by President Boris Yeltsin earlier in the week. (See yesterday's Monitor) Baturin explained the changes to take place in the command of the Ground Forces as an attempt... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin spoke by telephone yesterday with the president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev. (Itar-Tass, July 17) The conversation followed an incident in which a bomb destroyed a bus taking Ingush refugees back to the homes in the Prigorodny district of North Ossetia that they... MORE

The agenda for the first meeting of the NATO-Russia permanent joint council -- established in the recently signed Russia-NATO founding act -- has in large part been decided upon, Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov told reporters on July 15. Issues to be discussed include developments... MORE

New Russian passports will be issued to citizens of the Russian Federation beginning on October 1, replacing the old Soviet passports in use until now. The new passports will serve, as before, as proof of identity, not as documents for foreign travel. The process will... MORE

Prime minister Syarhey Linh yesterday tendered his resignation to president Alyaksandr Lukashenka for as yet unexplained reasons. Linh, 60, who had been appointed acting prime minister in November 1996, was confirmed in February of this year, and has been active and in good physical shape.... MORE

The Moldovan parliament yesterday voted by a large margin to dismiss Dumitru Diacov, a leading proponent of economic reforms, from his post as the parliament's vice-chairman. The self-styled "right-wing" opposition, recently joined by the supporters of former president Mircea Snegur, cooperated with the move in... MORE