A former top official in a Russian defense plant went on trial yesterday on charges of having worked for British intelligence. Vadim Sintsov, arrested by Russia's Federal Security Service in January, 1994, is accused of taking bribes and of passing defense related secrets to British... MORE

In his annual state-of-the-country address to parliament yesterday, Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze made a broad overture to Abkhazia. Shevardnadze held out: "the highest possible level of autonomy" for Abkhazia within a federalized Georgia; a "gradual" approach to the return of Georgian expellees; joint Georgian-Abkhaz law... MORE

The recent signing of the Russia-Belarus Union Charter may be overshadowing an increased willingness in Minsk to consider reformist solutions to the country's economic problems. Belarusan prime minister Syarhey Linh on May 21 called for the introduction of reforms as part of the Council of... MORE

The presidents of Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania met yesterday in Tallinn to discuss security and cooperation in the region between the Baltic and the Black seas. Aleksander Kwasniewski, Leonid Kuchma, Lennart Meri, Guntis Ulmanis, and Algirdas Brazauskas asserted in a joint communique their... MORE

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin says the pro-government "Russia is Our Home" movement (NDR) which he leads is to form a coalition with Vladimir Shumeiko's "Reforms -- New Policy" movement. (RTR, May 23) Another possible coalition partner, Chernomyrdin said, is the movement led by former... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin's aide, Georgy Satarov, was in Saratov oblast on May 23-24, taking the temperature of the political waters in the Volga region. Satarov was clearly interested in tapping the province for fresh ideas. The Monitor's correspondent in the region reports that he expressed... MORE

Representatives of some of the nine countries, signatory to the CIS Collective Security Treaty, conferred in Moscow yesterday following the Taliban's latest victories in northern Afghanistan. The CIS Security Council's Russian secretary, Vladimir Zemsky, spoke of a potential threat to Central Asia and supported convening... MORE

Officials in Moscow yesterday scrambled to clarify President Boris Yeltsin's impromptu pledge at that morning's signing ceremony of the Russia-NATO "Founding Act" to the effect that Russia would no longer aim nuclear missiles at NATO states. The English translation of his remarks, as released by... MORE

Private Andrei Weinmaster was reunited with his mother this week after a year and a half captivity in Chechnya. A ransom was paid for his release. Weinmaster, who was 18 when he was first sent into action, was captured by Chechen rebels in December 1995.... MORE

Russian human rights activist Sergei Kovalev, 67, is in intensive care after a heart bypass operation in Germany. His aides said his condition was satisfactory, given the seriousness of the operation. (Interfax, May 26) Meanwhile, Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 78, has been discharged from a... MORE