Russian first deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov yesterday completed two days of talks in Beijing preparatory to the arrival of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who today is himself to launch several days of talks with Chinese leaders. According to Russia's ambassador to China, a 1997-2000... MORE

Moscow may be dead set against NATO expansion, but the Russians have adopted the Western alliance's final Cold War nuclear policy of Flexible Response -- that is, Moscow is reserving the option to use nuclear weapons to counter a conventional attack. While Russian Security Council... MORE

The Russian armed forces look set to be engulfed in yet another political scandal following the issuance of an incendiary message from the chairman of the Duma's Defense Committee, General Lev Rokhlin. In an open letter addressed to Boris Yeltsin and to Russian servicemen, Rokhlin... MORE

Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Sysuev told a press conference yesterday that President Yeltsin might dissolve the Duma after it returns from its summer recess. Sysuev, who has responsibility for welfare issues, deplored the Duma's refusal to approve the government's proposed spending cuts and warned that... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin has suspended Justice Minister Valentin Kovalev, whose place is to be filled on a temporary basis by First Deputy Minister Georgy Kulikov. Yeltsin acted after Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov told the cabinet that a video showing Kovalev with naked women in... MORE

Retired general Aleksandr Lebed is expected to visit Nizhny Novgorod today and declare his support for Gennady Khodyrev, the Communist candidate in next Sunday's gubernatorial election. (ORT, June 25) Khodyrev has already won the support of Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democrats. Zhirinovsky's party almost never cooperates... MORE

The Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday circulated a statement denouncing the planned flights over parts of Kazakstan by a specially-equipped U.S. Navy P-3 Orion patrol plane that arrived in Almaty last week. The plane carries under its wings what is known as the Airborne Multisensory Pod... MORE

Turkmenistan's Ground Forces commander, Lt. Gen. Rinat Mereddurdyev, and the Defense Ministry's training department chief, Lt. Gen. Serdar Charypov, have been demoted to the rank of Colonel and dismissed from active service by decree of president Saparmurad Niazov for "serious shortcomings in their work" and... MORE

Unanimously and without debate, the Belarusan parliament's upper house yesterday approved legislation enlarging President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's powers. Lukashenka now has the authority to appoint directly the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, the general prosecutor, and the National Bank chairman and board. He is also... MORE

Gennady Konoplyov, considered one of the wealthiest businessmen in Lithuania, committed suicide on June 23 after audit and law enforcement agencies had found evidence of massive fraud in his banking operations. Konoplyov was the founding president of the Tauras Bank and also chaired Lithuanian Enterprises,... MORE