Yesterday's Monitor suggested incorrectly that Azerbaijan is the only CIS country which does not have Russian border troops on its territory. In fact, other CIS countries, including Ukraine and Moldova, also have no such Russian troops. The Monitor is a publication of the Jamestown Foundation.... MORE

Ingush president Ruslan Aushev yesterday sent Russian president Boris Yeltsin a telegram informing him that the authorities in North Ossetia are preventing Ingush refugees from returning to the homes in Prigorodny district that they fled in 1992. Aushev appealed to Yeltsin to intervene, saying there... MORE

Several hundred atomic power station workers are approaching Moscow. They plan to march through the city and picket the government building on July 17 in order to demand their back pay, some of which is eight months in arrears. The workers set off on July... MORE

The Bulgarian armed forces' Chief of Staff said on July 12 that Bulgaria could not afford to buy the 40 MiG-29s Russia had offered. Talks on the sale have taken place throughout the year. In April, Bulgaria's prime minister said his country could not afford... MORE

Congo's private airlines were told on July 13 that they could no longer use old Soviet-made aircraft nor hire Russian pilots. Transport Minister Henri Mova complained that the Russians spoke neither French nor English. "We don't know their qualifications," he said, "and the condition of... MORE

A Central Committee plenum of the Party of Communists of Belarus yesterday expelled 23 party members, former deputies of the legitimate parliament, who have accepted seats in the lower house of the parliament formed by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The PCB had earlier expelled the new... MORE

Sergei Dubinin, Chairman of Russia's Central Bank, has accused Unikombank, one of Russia's commercial banks, of embezzling half a billion dollars of state funds entrusted to the bank for servicing. (Reuter, July 14) Dubinin said yesterday that the case had been referred to the state... MORE

Forbes magazine published on July 14 its listing of the world's 200 richest businessmen, which for the first time includes three Russians. Boris Berezovsky's personal wealth is estimated at $3 billion, followed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Rosprom-Yukos ($2.4 billion), and Vagit Alekperov of LUKoil ($1.4... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin has signed a decree upgrading the status and authority of his presidential representatives in Russia's regions. (Segodnya, July 11) The move represents an effort by the Kremlin to reassert the control over provincial governors that it effectively lost last year, when governors... MORE

The director of the Russian Federal Border Service (FBS), General Andrei Nikolaev, has announced to journalists that a "fundamental restructuring" of his agency has already begun. (Delovoi mir, July 3) The announcement comes in the runup to a meeting of the Russian Defense Council --... MORE