At a government meetingon June 5, Russian first deputy finance minister Vladimir Petrovpresented the government's draft budget for 1998, and was sharplycriticized by Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov for proposingfurther cuts in social spending. First Deputy Prime Minister AnatolyChubais, who chaired the meeting, warned that the... MORE

A company in the Russian city of Novosibirskhas developed a new type of sunglasses that carry an apparentlyrealistic looking set of holographic eyes modeled on those ofwell-known personalities. The company points out that the glassesmight be useful for workers who like to doze at their... MORE

The head ofTatarstan's secret police has complained that unidentified MiddleEastern countries have expanded their intelligence-gathering activitiesin the republic. He said that the U.S. and a few other countrieshave long been active in Tatarstan, but that the activity of MiddleEastern countries is becoming increasingly common. (Interfax-Eurasia,June... MORE

Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembskyyesterday made clear to reporters that former Russian defenseminister Pavel Grachev is not among the candidates being consideredfor the post of Russian representative to NATO's military headquarters.(Interfax, June 5) Reports to that effect have appeared in thepress periodically ever since the disgraced... MORE

Kazak military officials are trying to broker a $90 million dealto sell SA-10 surface-to-air missiles to Iran over the objectionsof the U.S. government, The Washington Times reported yesterday.A former Kazak defense minister and several officials in Kazakstan'smilitary intelligence are said to be involved. The paper... MORE

The commanderof Kazakstan's border troops, Maj. Gen. Toktasyn Buzubaev, yesterdayprotested against Russia's official decision to add Cossack auxiliariesto Russian Border Troops deployed opposite Kazakstan. (SeeMonitor, June 5) The move has already caused a "certaintension" on the Kazakstani side of the border, Buzubaev notedin a special... MORE

Russia's Federal Border Service and the Siberian Cossack Host signed yesterday in Omsk an agreement on the use of Cossack auxiliaries to guard the Russia-Kazakstan border together with Russia's border troops. The agreement applies initially to four regions and is to be extended to the... MORE

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma has at last consented to the Crimean parliament's sacking of Crimean prime minister Arkady Demydenko and its reappointment of former prime minister Anatoly Franchuk. The Crimean parliament dismissed Demydenko three times before Kuchma agreed to his replacement by Franchuk, whose son... MORE

Maj. Gen. Joni Pirtskhalaishvili resigned yesterday as deputy defense minister of Georgia over differences with the minister, Lt. Gen. Vardiko Nadibaidze. Pirtskhalaishvili, an ex-Soviet career officer, had served as the first defense minister of independent Georgia under the late president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, but was later... MORE

The leadership of the Russian republic of Marii-El has announced that, in an effort to attract outside investment, it intends to declare the republic an offshore zone. There has been no serious investment in the republic's economy in recent years, but in the future investors... MORE