The commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Gen. Volodymyr Antonets, yesterday suggested that Ukraine might scrap the 40 ex-Soviet strategic bombers it inherited unless the Russians agree to buy them for "a fair" price. He said that it costs $400,000 each year to properly maintain... MORE

The Cooperative Neighbor-97 exercise, held within the framework of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, is underway at Ukraine's Yavoriv training ground in Lviv region. Approximately 1,200 soldiers from the U.S., Greece, Moldova, Georgia, and several Central and East European countries have joined Ukrainian troops for... MORE

The recent dismissal of Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko was largely a response to Western exasperation with President Leonid Kuchma's failure to take the Ukrainian legislature in hand and forge ahead with economic reform. Earlier this year the IMF suspended lending to Ukraine pending approval of... MORE

A Russian government official yesterday appeared to splash cold war on earlier, optimistic reports that last week's Japanese-Russian talks on fishing rights in the waters of the disputed Kuril Islands had achieved some sort of breakthrough. According to Igor Sinelnikov, deputy head of a department... MORE

On the eve of the historic NATO summit in Madrid, an unnamed Russian government source yesterday claimed that Moscow had, in fact, managed to outmaneuver those Eastern European countries now seeking membership in NATO. The official said that the recently signed Russia-NATO Founding Act --... MORE

Belarusan authorities yesterday canceled the accreditation of the ORT state-controlled Russian television network's Minsk correspondent, Pavel Sheremet. The authorities accused Sheremet, a Belarusan citizen, of providing "distorted" and "biased" coverage that "misinformed" the Russian and Belarusan audiences. In March, the Belarusan authorities canceled the accreditation... MORE

On July 6 Stephen Wagner of the International Electoral Systems Foundation presented the results of an opinion survey in Uzbekistan. Eighty percent approved Uzbek independence, although 63 percent said that life had become worse in economic terms since 1991 and only 48 percent thought that... MORE

The Russian government has revoked the status of free economic zone which it granted to Ingushetia on an experimental basis in 1993. The government explained its decision by saying that free economic zones deprive the federal budget of sorely needed revenue and that their existence... MORE

A U.S. Pentagon official said during an official briefing on July 3 that Russia has decided not to participate in any of NATO's Partnership for Peace exercises this year because it cannot afford to finance them. The official said that Moscow had made no such... MORE

The parliamentary faction "Russia is Our Home" has decided not to expel Gen. Lev Rokhlin, an official of the pro-government group told reporters on July 3. (Itar-Tass, July 3) Rokhlin outraged the Kremlin late last month when he issued an appeal that blamed Russia's current... MORE