A meeting was held in Moscow yesterday between Russian first deputy premier Boris Nemtsov and his Chechen counterpart, Movladi Udugov. They discussed the question of restoring the Baku-Novorossiisk oil pipeline and the transportation of oil through Chechen territory. (Interfax, NTV, June 4) This is the... MORE

Two leaders of Russia's lower house of parliament indicated on June 3 that the Duma will soon debate the recently-signed Russia-NATO Founding Act, but that the action will not constitute an act of ratification or non-ratification. The debate will apparently result, at most, in a... MORE

The chief of Russia's main counterintelligence agency -- the Federal Security Service (FSB) -- has offered amnesty to those Russians who step forward and admit that they are spying for foreign powers. The proposal, announced by FSB director Nikolai Kovalev in a June 3 TV... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin and First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov have submitted their income and property declarations to the State Tax Inspectorate, in accordance with presidential decree no. 484 of May 15, 1997, and made them available to selected newspapers. The declarations show these men... MORE

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has won an international tender for 60 percent of the stock of Kazakstan's Aktobemunaigaz oil company -- apparently China's largest equity acquisition to date in neighboring Kazakstan. The planned $300 million investment is expected to more than double Aktobemunaigaz's... MORE

In yet another indication of declining morale and living conditions in Russia's armed forces, two officers serving in the Northern Fleet committed suicide last week. Both officers reportedly left notes attributing their action to chronic non-payment of salaries and to the financial problems that they... MORE

The pull-out of 1,900 troops from the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transdniester (the renamed 14th Army) was completed on June 1, according to a Russian newspaper report citing the group's commander, Valery Yevnevich. Earlier in the year Russian and Moldovan officials had said... MORE

Citing a shortage of funding, the Russian Communications Ministry's telegraph service has stopped transmitting weather forecasts to the armed forces. According to a statement from a presidential commission, the termination of this service might have been the cause of several fatal air force crashes during... MORE

The Latvian parliament yesterday voted to approve the appointment of Talavs Jundzis as Defense Minister. Jundzis held that post in 1991-93, and later headed the Riga-based Baltic Strategic Studies Center. A Christian-Democrat, Jundzis was nominated for the ministerial post by the National Conservative-Farmers' Union bloc... MORE

The Kremlin has announced that President Boris Yeltsin's homepage is now open on the Internet in both Russian and English. The new site (www.gov.ru) includes information on Yeltsin's biography and income, and there are also plans to post a bulletin board on Yeltsin' health. Yeltsin's... MORE